Taking Chances
by carebearluv101
Summary: Lily used to hate James Potter. But once James gets seriously injured and invites her friends to his house for Christmas break, plenty of drama, romance, and action are included in Lily's life. Have Lily's feelings about James slowly changed?
1. Chapter 1

**Taking Chances**

Chapter 1 – A Painful Beginning

James stretched his neck and looked over his shoulder. Divination had to be the most boring subject ever! He ached for a moment of action or fight against evil. When was the torture going to end?!

Sirius Black, James Potter's best friend, was leaning on the hind legs of his wooden chair, gazing at his pretty tea leaves partner, Arabella Frell. Sirius was so lucky to have a partner like her! James himself was teamed up with Edna the Eerie, a.k.a. a major nerd.

Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, James glanced at his tea leaf and pretended to look up the object in his text book, while actually sneaking peeks at Lily Evans.

Lily Evans was the smartest, the prettiest, most-outstanding, good-looking girl in all Hogwarts. She had long, shiny, red hair, and great emerald eyes. She was tall and thin, always perfect, and_ amazing_. The one problem was: she loathed James Potter.

Oh how cute she was! How cute she _looked_. If only he could ever persuade her to go on a date.........

"Mr. Potter!"

He quickly looked up. "Yes, Professor Trewlaney?"

Professor Trewlaney whipped back her abnormally long, tangled hair, rattling her beads in the process and swishing her many scarves and shawls. "Could you please explain your tea leaf to the class?"

James started to flip through his book, but realized it was no use. He hadn't been paying to the lesson at all, so he might as well just wing it.

"Well, Ma'am, the glow-in-the-dark stars made me tired, and I kinda fell asleep!" he said, yawning and grinning a triumphant smile, and pointing to the glittering stars decoratively hanging above the classroom.

The class giggled and squealed.

Sirius, wanting to be with his best friend in detention, and also wanting the attention, bravely stood and produced a loud and obviously fake snore.

The class giggled and squealed more than ever.

Professor Trewlaney did not want to take this nonsense any longer, so she yelled, "SILENCE!!"

The class grew quiet.

"You, and you," she pointed to Sirius and James, "Detention....NOW!"

The two teenage boys smirked at each other and walked slowly and proudly to the back of the classroom, while the students cheered and clapped their hands enthusiastically. Sirius flicked his long, black, hair to the girls on the left, and James winked to the girls on the right. The girls laughed and whispered excitedly to each other, but Lily just rolled her eyes.

***

After lunch, Remus, Sirius, and James walked rested under a pear tree next to the lake. Remus had short, dirty blonde hair and light brown eyes. His grades were almost always the same as Lily's, and he tried to keep Sirius and James from starting pranks…_too much_. Sirius and James had always been the best of friends. Sirius had long black hair, James had short black hair. Sirius had bright blue eyes; James had dark chocolate brown eyes. They were both strong, and so incredibly handsome that practically every girl would die to date one of the two, and had proclaimed their role as "The Hogwarts Heart Throbs" long ago. In their first year, James, Sirius, and Remus had formed a group called the Marauders. This group was a secret society of the biggest pranksters in Hogwarts History. To keep this club the most private, Sirius and James became unregistered animagus. Sirius became a scruffy and playful dog, and James became a headstrong and leadership stag.

One day, they found out that Remus was actually a werewolf. Because he was definitely not a bad person, James and Sirius arranged that they would meet with Remus when he transformed into a werewolf in animagus form. Henceforth, they would not get hurt and would be able to communicate and stop him from doing anything crazy to himself. To communicate about these meetings in private, they gave each other code names. James was Prongs, Sirius was Padfoot, and Remus was Moony.

James and Sirius watched the regular girls dip their toes into the water, but instead, Remus read a book, that he was thoroughly in.

"Ah, C'mon, Moony!" said Sirius. "Don't you want to rest your eyes on the prize?"

Remus, confused, looked around for a moment for the "prize". Then he saw what Sirius meant.

"Whoa, okay, that's definitely not my prize. Reading for a good reason of education is a better one." Remus held up the book he was reading, Greek Myths and Roman Astronomy.

James snorted. "Well, that's not _my _kind of prize. Too me, that's more of an investment."

Moony just shook his head and smiled.

A few minutes passed, and James went back to momentarily glimpsing crossways over the lake at Lily.

Padfoot saw Prongs and chuckled. "Why don't you ask her, Prongs?"

"Because she'll just say no again! Like _every other time_!"

"Well now's your chance to prove you're worthy." Sirius nodded towards two boys to the side of them.

Avery and Mulciber were lounging slowly towards the girls. _Slytherins_. Slytherins and Gryffindor's were mortal despised enemies. Each hated each other and would not help to express how much.

Now, with that Avery, you needed at least one person to stop him. With Mulciber, you needed _two_.

"C'mon, Moony." James sighed as he tugged Remus along by the arm.

The three teenagers stalked Avery and Mulciber, being cautious with every step, and not being afraid to hide behind a tree or bush if had to.

Then they reached the girls.

"Hey, hot stuff." Avery smirked at Arabella, receiving a scrunched up nose and a flick of her hair.

Sirius snarled.

"Oh, hi," Mulciber sneered at Lily. "Maybe sometime we can get together. Oh, wait. You're a _MUDBLOOD_." Mulciber and Avery snickered; James turned mad to furious.

Lily bravely acted like no one was talking to her, and ignored the two with great courage.

"Hey, I'm talking to you _MUDBLOOD_."

"_Leave her alone!_" James exclaimed coldly.

It took a moment for everyone to realize that the boys were there, defending the girls.

"Hey, _Potter_. Hope you're doing worse than usual today."

"I'm actually doing very well, _Av._"

"So what do you want?!" asked Mulciber menacingly.

"Ha!" mocked Sirius. "What do _you _think?!" he shot out.

Suddenly, all three boys cast spells on Avery and Mulciber. Being so unexpected, the enemies had no time to react. Luckily, the Marauders had a secret word: _crack. _"Crack" _meant_ "go" or "do" or "quickly – run!" or any kind of main action word. In the very beginning of the secret word, Sirius had suggested "bellybutton". But Remus reasoned that "crack" would be better. For example: when another heard one of the three say "crack" they would have thought they heard him say "crap". So, being the wise fellow he is, Sirius had muttered "crack" just loud enough for the Marauders to hear.

A few minutes later, Mulciber was frozen solid, and Avery was stuffed inside a 10 feet tall teddy bear. (Sirius' choice, of course)

"Aww, thanks, guys!" giggled Arabella and smiling at Sirius. The rest of the girls grinned and said their thanks, but Lily just quickly nodded her head in the direction of Remus and Sirius and then turned away to say something to Arabella.

"See what I mean?" James said to Sirius.

Unfortunately, Sirius was not listening, and was instead sneaking short looks at Arabella and flicking his hair and smirking, trying to look his absolute best, when he got her attention.

"Sirius! See what I mean?!" he tried again, a little louder.

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure." Sirius said, not concentratingon on James at all.

James rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, there was a startling fast sound of footsteps hitting the grass, running up to them all. James saw the girls faces turn frightened and looking at him in warning. James casually turned around, only to see Severus Snape flick out his wand and yell, "_Sectumsempra!" _

James, taken on sure surprise, felt a razor sharp pain in his side. Feeling dizzy, painful, and light-headed, he fell to his knees, clutching his stomach and falling onto the grass. Sirius jumped on Snape and was strangling him, while Remus had backed away to get help. Lily ran over to James and knelt beside him.

"James Potter." She said, pulling on the bottom of his shirt. "You are _so _lucky I'm the only one of three at Hogwarts who decided to take Wizard Medical Care class who is _here _right now."

James would have actually enjoyed this comment, but at the moment he was experiencing terrible pain.

Pulling off his shirt, she bent down low to his side to examine his injury. "Oh, my heavens!" she muttered. "This is _bad_, Potter. You have to get to the Hospital Wing right away. As much as I hate/despise you, you need _serious _help. Maybe even Saint Mungo's." Lily rolled her eyes as she saw a girl walking by, her eyebrows raised as she saw James' surely toned chest. Lily, of course, would never even think to go into that nonsence. Right?

"No!" James managed to cringe out. "The quidittich game's on Friday!"

"Well, we'll have to see what we can do about that, won't we?"

"What if-"

James suddenly passed out. The last thing he saw was Lily's beautiful green eyes staring down at him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – In the Hospital Wing with Lily

James woke up by the sound of voices. He put his glasses on and realized that he was inside the hospital wing, and Remus and Sirius were talking at the end of his sickbed.

"He is going to be _so _psyched." Moony grinned.

"_Definitely._" nodded Padfoot. "Poor Prongs…or should I say Poor _Snivelus_. He's gonna be so mad at him. The jerk is gonna get it double time!"

"Well he can't be. Otherwise, Lily won't like him."

"Girls are so complicated."

"Tell me about it."

James decided it was a good time to pop in.

"So what am I gonna be so psyched about?"James asked.

"Oh, _good morno_ bro!" Sirius grinned.

"Wow, Sirius. That's a true pioneer word." Remus congratulated.

"Thank you very much."

"_Guys!_ What am I gonna be so psyched about?!"

"Care to do the honors, Remus?" Sirius said with a flick of his hair.

"Of _course _Sirius." Moony agreed, bowing. He cleared his throat. "Ms. Lily Evans - soon to be Potter - has informed us that she would be greatly obliged to visit Mr. James Potter at the Hospital Wing in 15 minutes. But that was about 14 minutes and three quarters ago, so she _should _be here any second now…"

"CRAP!" James cried.

He quickly ran his fingers through his always messy hair and reached for the mouthwash Remus warily handed him. He tried to scramble out of bed, but he stopped midway when he received a major shock from his right leg and side, so he grabbed his bowl of oatmeal and spit it out in there, instead. He was halfway in saying, "Do I look okay?" when Lily walked through the front doors of the Hospital Wing.

Her beautiful auburn hair was perfectly curled in ringlets, and unique emerald eyes were more stunning than ever.

"Oh, James," she said, frowning at the sight of him laying there in the hospital bed, and trying to look as if she was totally nonchalant. However, she wasn't that good at hiding the fact she was worried when she came running over.

Lily stood on James' right side of the bed, and was so excited she almost grasped his hand.

"When you passed out were as pale as chalk! When that _Snape _cast that curse on you it scared me half to death! I was, and still am, mad at him!"

James sneaked a triumphant grin at the boys.

"Well, Snivelus got handled, that's for sure." Sirius said, cracking his knuckles and nodded his head towards the hospital bed across the room. "Thanks to me." He finished proudly.

"Although, I'm not quite sure where he learned that spell…"

"Once a death eater, always a death eater." Stated Remus.

"He's a _death eater?!_" gasped Lily.

"Yep!" Sirius beamed like it was the happiest thing in the world.

"Well…I really hope you get better soon, James. Wait – is that _Listerine Mouthwash _in your _oatmeal_?!"

"Actually," Sirius said in a mocking television ad voice, "It's Scope Mouthwash, Original Mint Flavor. Scope kills millions of bad breath germs. Its mighty tingle gets your breath clean and fresh. Use Scope for the confidence to get closer. Scope. Feel the tingle,"

Lily made a confused look at Sirius only to be given a flashy smile. James rolled his eyes at remembering the sight of Sirius inspecting the back of a mouthwash bottle quite longer than normal reading time.

Remus was the first to speak. "Sirius' latest hobby is to memorize the back of mouthwash bottles. This has been his first chance to express his talent," he explained.

Lily raised her eyebrows, nodding. "Right," she said, obviously used to Sirius' strange behavior. Then, she cringed. This wasn't exactly the most comfortable chatting situation, so she chose to retreat.

Glancing at her watch, Lily threw a hand up and sighed. "I got a class in ten minutes," she said sympathetically.

"Alright," James smiled. "See ya,"

Lily smiled a small smile and began to walk slowly backwards. "Okay. Well…I'll see you guys later." Then, with a wave, she left.

Sirius grinned so big it was almost evil at his two best friends. "Our evil plan is working dear friends!"

"That did go well," Remus agreed.

"Yeah except for Sirius' stupid back-of-mouthwash reciting," James glared with a flick of his hand.

Sirius' grin quickly turned into a puppy-dog pout. "Really?" he sniffed, "I thought that was sort of cool! Quite…refreshing. _Mouth _refreshing!"

Remus and James exchanged a meaningful look and stared Sirius down.

"Sirius," James said seriously as Remus rested a hand on Sirius' shoulder. "Have you been taking your meds lately?"

They all laughed.

It took only one of them to mess a plan up, but three of them to make it better.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Lily's Mysterious Note

"Wow." Lily whispered as she looked up from her Charms paper, sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, still amazed she had actually had a calm conversation with James Potter. No jokes! No pranks! No tricks! Now _that _was amazing. Why was he suddenly acting this way, though?

Lily decided to work on her Charms Exam, and to get her mind off James. Why was she thinking so much of him anyway? Wasn't she supposed to hate him?

_I must be out of my mind!_

Shaking her head in disbelief, Lily grabbed her textbook from her book bag and read, '_Ocoma Manari is a charm that if cast, will send a note or certain object being kept from you and/or a random subject that had been performed within the last twenty four hours.' _

_Hmmm…maybe I should try it! _

"Ocoma Manari!"

All of the sudden, two crumpled up pieces of parchment flew into the Gryffindor Common Room, out of nowhere, and landed in Lily's lap. She jumped, and heard a _thump _as her wand fell off the couch and onto the carpet. A little flash of red sparks flickered from out of the tip once it hit the floor, and to her convenience, burned a small hole through the decorative rug.

Lily winced. Hopefully no one would notice.

Once back to her senses, Lily cautiously opened the first crumpled up piece of parchment that she saw. On it was sloppy letters written in ink. The owner must have not waited long enough for the ink to dry, for some letters and the outsides were smeared. It read:

QZNVH OLLLLEH OROB!!!!!

It had to be some sort of code. Also, it might have been a love note because around some of the letters were slushy and dark written hearts. Tomorrow, she would ask Remus, who was good at translating things like such.

The next note said:

**Sirius**, Can you believe it?!! The plan actually worked! It took a while to convince the old Dumbledoofus, but sooner or later he gave in! Just _wait _till we see everyone's (especially Lily's) face tomorrow! –

**James **

What?! What was James' mysterious plan? And why would he want to see her face tomorrow from the news? This was strange. And obviously this spell didn't give you all of the information you needed! She would just have to wait till tomorrow. But, of course that wouldn't be easy.

"Blimey, Lily!" someone exclaimed behind her.

Lily gasped and twirled around from the couch and saw with relief it was only Arabella, her best friend, roommate, and "almost" girlfriend of Sirius.

"You've been looking at that paper for hours!" Arabella rolled her eyes.

"Oh. Sorry."

Arabella shook her head warily. "Go to sleep; I reckon you have a big day ahead of you."

"Okay, I'll be up in a few minutes."

Once Arabella was gone, Lily took the privilege of gazing around the Gryffindor Common Room. She just couldn't believe that in a few weeks – she would never be seeing it again. It was all so majestic and stunning. The Persian red carpets…the forever burning fire…the polished and shiny, fancy mahogany tables.

"Ahh!" Lily screamed.

Someone had just tugged on her braids quite hard. But no one was in the room except herself. That could only mean one thing…

"James Potter! I know it's you – you and you're little invisibility cloak! Get out of here you jerk!"

The sound of laughter filled the room and with a flash of black hair, he was gone.

Why did he always have to do that?! And why did he write that note about me?! Lily thought. Did James write the other note also?!

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she muttered. "He made me lose track on my Charms Essay!"

Lily started up stairs to the Girls Dormitories; she needed some sleep. With one final look at the Boys Dormitories door, Lily walked in, although she swore she saw those big, chocolate brown eyes laughing at her once more.

*

"Remus, I have a couple questions to ask you." Lily said as she sat down at the Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Oh, no!" Remus cried, with a look of terror. "Just joking; ask away."

Lily flicked her auburn hair over her shoulder and tried to speak loud enough for Remus to hear over the roar of chatting students, but quiet enough for no one else to hear. "I was wondering if you could crack this code for me…I found it in the dungeons." She lied between her teeth. She handed him the note.

Remus read it carefully, and his eyes immediately went wide. He gave her a look that clearly said, _Yeah, right. Like you actually found this in the dungeons! _And turned around to see if anyone was watching him. "I probably shouldn't tell you this," he murmured, "because if the certain person who wrote this code found out, that certain person would kill me big time. He paused and gulped. "Have you ever heard of the Star Fierce Code?"

Lily shook her head, no.

"Remus explained the Star Fierce code as simple as possible. The code contained the letters of the alphabet, so it was pretty easy.

"Now I'm not going to tell you what the code says," he continued, "because that would be too embarrassing for both of us to handle, and I advise you to not crack the code in front of others, either. Unless of course you want teasing from all students in Hogwarts, and a certain person turned into a Serial Killer in less than fifteen minutes and triestries to murder me. You are very lucky I actually told you – you owe me one Lily Evans!"

"Got it." Lily nodded seriously.

"Oh, _good morning _dear Lily flower!" said Sirius with a mouth full of eggs and bacon to the left of Lily.

"Good morning," she smiled. "Sirius, do you happen to know where James is?"

Sirius gasped with a sparkle in his eyes. "Did Lily just ask about _my brother from another mother?! A.k.a. James?!" _He shrieked with excitement and mock enthusiasm. "That is sooooo sweet!" 

"Now, Sirius," said Arabella, popping into the conversation, "don't you go teasing Lily about her love life!"

Everyone laughed, but Lily sunk her head into her hands. It was going to be a long day.

Suddenly, there was uproar from the ceiling. It was James on his broomstick! He flew down, attracting laughter and smiles. The second his feet touched the ground, Sirius and Remus jumped out of their seats and stood next to him. "Thank you; thank you," James shouted loudly.

A Hufflepuff girl shouted, "Hey, James, I thought you were in the hospital wing!"

"Oh, yes," James replied, smiling, "I have recently recovered, but thank you to all who stopped by or sent the get well presents!"

The girls laughed a nauseating flirtatious giggle at remembering the gifts they had given James. Every girl in Hogwarts who wished to participate created a humongous sign reading: WE LOVE YOU JAMES! GET BETTER SOON! And had signed all of their names. However, to Lily's stupidity knowledge, and also James' sorrow, Lily was not one of those girls.

"Anyways," James again yelled to the students, "I have an announcement to make!"

Everyone whispered excitedly as James handed his two friends something under his cloak.

"Also, we would appreciate it much if you remained quiet," he added, although everyone was completely silent.

Turning around, James grinned and cast a spell that created midnight blue banners above each table. Sparkles fell magically from the ends of the silky-looking fabric and on each sign said in fancy cursive writing: _Hogwarts Annual Winter Ball!_ The girls shrieked with happiness at the banners, but to Lily's amusement, she saw the boys did the complete opposite and groaned.

"Being the head boy and all," James said in a cocky voice and with a smirk on his face Lily wished she could smack off, "Professor Dumbledore has asked me to announce the Hogwarts Annual Winter Ball!"

Applause followed, and Sirius and Remus bowed medievally.

"The ball will take place nine days from now," he continued, "after Christmas break. More news and reminders will follow this notice, don't worry, so you don't have to feel like you don't have much time. This is just the oppose of a short notice. It's a late ball, perfect for Winter, from eight o'clock p.m. to eleven p.m. And _ladies….."_

Reaching into their pockets, all three boys pulled out their own pair of slick, dark sunglasses. After slipping them on, slicking their hair back (receiving many squeals by this action as well), and crossing their arms they handsomely and haughtily said, "We are _so _open!"

Screams of delight and excitement filled the Great Hall but Lily shook her head. They were so immature! Well, maybe not Remus, but still!

_This was what James was talking about in that stupid note to Sirius!_

Lily clenched her fists as she realized James had only been excited because he thought she liked him! Obviously, she had made the wrong impression by visiting him at the hospital wing yesterday. She had only, _only _made that visit because she was simply trying to show some sympathy for once!

But that stupid, arrogant, show off had to think his poor 'I'm so hurt! I need help, Lily!' stanza would make Lily so pettily sorry she would instantly fall in love. How stupid did he think she was anyways?! So by his little _I can't wait to see Lily's face! _Was because his 'cool guy' act of being 'so open' would have Lily ask him to the dance.

_Well, fat chance Potter!_

Outraged, Lily roughly gathered her things and, ignoring the confused looks from her friends, and the hurt face of James Potter, she stormed out of the room and closed the door with a slam.

***

After that horrible breakfast, Lily stayed in her room. It was not long though until she realized she was quite bored and quite hungry, since she did not eat a lot earlier. So, surviving on stale bubble gum she had stolen from Arabella's secret stash, she restlessly waited until it was time to go to her first class of the day: stupid double potions. Lily decided she would go fifteen minutes early, because she could not stand to wait in her dorm any longer. Maybe she could also get a head start on the lesson while she was there.....

It was not long until the students began to pile in to the class room, chatting and sitting down by their friends. Some of them stared at Lily curiously, recalling the embarrassing event that had happened at breakfast. Lily was glad to see, however, James did not dare to sit next to Lily, and was surely keeping his distance.

Taking a deep breath, Lily tried to be cheerful as she prepared for the lesson to come. As much as Lily actually hated boring classes like this, she was actually very smart at them. Like every other class.

Seeing Arabella trotting over to sit at the empty seat besides her, Lily smiled at her friend only to hear a loud _slam! _as someone dropped their books down on the desk Arabella had been attempting to sit at. Bella winced and glared at whoever was had claimed the seat, and angrily skipped away to sit next to Sirius with a dramatic flick of her hair.

Oh no! Whoever chose to sit next to Lily must be horrible or weird or something since Bella made a big deal out of it. Slowly turning her head while pretending to be flipping to the page of their assignment for the day written on the black board, Lily peeked slyly to the side to figure out who the student sitting next to her was.

It was Snape! The _nerve _of him!

Lily had always known Snape had a major crush on her since first year, and like another boy at Hogwarts, would certainly not let it go. Lily actually had been sort of friends with the dork until she realized he was a stupid, ugly, evil, etc, etc, etc boy.

Unable to keep the disgusted look off her face, Lily looked up at Arabella, silently pleading for help.

Severus Snape soon saw the look on Lily's face and actually looked concerned.

The git.

"Lily," he stuttered, "I wanted to apologize for everything. I mean, I'm sorry for what I did to James – _truly _sorry!"

"_Save. Your. Breath._" Lily said coldly.

"But I didn't mean to!" he pleaded.

Lily gasped shocked he actually had the nerve to say such a thing. "You _disgust _me Snape! You try to get my forgiveness by lying and saying you didn't _mean _to hurt James?! You've hated him all your life! So don't try to act all sorry when I know you don't give a crap about _James_ – you just want to get on terms with _me_!"

His eyes grew wide, and there was a moment of silence between them until Snape muttered, "So you choose James then?"

"What are you talking about?" she snapped.

But Snape just sorrowfully shook his head, and didn't say another word.

When the class dismissed, Lily did not bother to take her time gathering her school supplies, just in case Snape tried to speak to her again. She was glad when she discovered she was the first out the door.

Now half-way down the hall, Lily's frantic speed walk slowed to a casual stroll. She figured she was far away enough for Snape to leave her alone.

To her left, Lily heard a burst of laughter, and to her disgust, she saw James along with his little entourage, laughing about something one of them must have said. She rolled her eyes, deciding to ignore them. Suddenly, a sweaty and oily hand grasped her shoulder and a wheezy voice panted in her ear, "Hold up!" She did not need to turn around to know who was trying to catch her.

Whipping around angrily, she turned to face the annoyance, her green eyes flashing with hatred. "_Severus Snape_," she gritted her teeth, "I cannot _stand _hearing one more beg of forgiveness, so you better get out of the way or I'll – "

"Or she'll call up her best friend to save her!" a cocky voice rose up to them.

Oh, happy, happy, joy, joy. Lily knew that voice anywhere. Just, lovely.

James, Sirius, and Remus sauntered nonchalantly towards Lily and Snape, James' eyes twinkling with amusement. He obviously found Lily's detestation towards Severus was quite appealing.

"A damsel in distress," Sirius cried as he stumbled against Remus, his hand dramatically placed on his forehead. "Save the maiden, James!"

Lily rolled her eyes to see Sirius wink in her direction.

"Go find a soap opera, Black," Severus spat irritably. The retaliation was mean to be rude, but sounded so stupid Sirius burst out laughing.

"Nice comeback, Snivelus!" Sirius said as the boys snickered.

"Well," James ran his hand through his messy, jet black hair and boldly wrapped his arm around Lily, "It's been nice talking to ya Snape, really. But I really don't think Lily darling is having much fun hanging out with the likes of you so…we'll catch you later,"

As if.

Lily pushed James' arm off her shoulder and crossed her arms stubbornly. Seeing this action, Snape turned infuriated. "Potter," he snarled as James turned around, smiling like seeing Snape mad was entertaining. "Stay away from Lily – she's _mine_!"

There was silence. Silence for Snape, because he was mad, silence for Lily because she was shocked, and silence for the boys because what he said was so utterly hilarious.

"_What _did you just say Snivelus," James managed to say while cracking up with his friends. Laughing wildly in hysteria, Remus slapped his knee, saying, "You've got to be _joking!_"

Snape's eyes widened as he realized he had done something very dumb.

Lily couldn't help but smile. This just had to be one of the most embarrassing moments in Snape's life!

Finally the boys stopped laughing, and Snape scurried away, filled with embarrassment.

"That was funny," James said, grinning at Lily.

And then Lily did something she had rarely done before: she smiled a small smile back at James.


	4. Stuffed Golden Snitches

Chapter 4 – Stuffed Golden Snitches

James walked down the fifth floor with Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

He _needed _to find a way to make Lily go to the ball with him!

"How can I ask her to the dance?" he muttered to himself.

"Wait a sec," grinned Sirius, "Who is this 'her'? _Who _is James going to the ball with?"

"No one." Answered James instantly.

Remus snorted. "Yeah right! Practically half of the school would die to go with you."

"Let me guess…" Sirius reasoned.

"Is it Natasha?"

"No."

"Abigail?"

"No."

"Mary?"

"No."

"Carly?"

"No."

"Cindy?"

"No."

"Elizabeth?"

"No."

"Sandra?

"No."

"Becca?"

"No."

"Is it….._Lily??!!!_"

"No….maybe…okay, fine. I admit it."

"Yeah!" burst Sirius as he high fived a reluctant Remus. "My man James going with my flower, Lily. Wait a spell, and the love doctor can get to work. I have an unpaid bet to take care of." Sirius held out his hand triumphantly in front of him, as Peter and Remus both reluctantly reached into their pockets and dropped several galleons into his palm.

James sighed. His friends had obviously been betting on him.

"Okay," Sirius beamed. "Back to business! Just so you know, I _am _the love doctor –"

"And I'm his assistant!" squeaked Peter happily.

"Peter!" cried Sirius.

"Sorry, sorry." Peter immediately pulled out a small notebook and started to write his "not to do" list.

"Don't but in," Sirius instructed.

"Don't…but…in..." Peter scribbled down.

"Don't be ridiculous,"

"Don't…be…ridiculous…"

"And stop writing those notes!"

"Stop…writing….notes… Got it!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "_Anyways, _the reason Lily hates you is because you're sometime too 'pranky' and 'mean like' to wimpy nerds. Unfortunately, that has to stop. You must show your wittle icky kindness and take more notice to her, _not _justbecause she's hot. You see, women are so picky on those types of things. They want…let's see what's the right word…oh, yeah. They want _attention_."

"And how am I supposed to do that?!" demanded James.

"Talk to her alone. Be nice. Give her a mushy gift. The usual." Remus quickly explained.

"Uh, _hello_!" complained Sirius. "_I'm _the love doctor. Not you!"

Remus rolled his eyes.

"So," said James, trying to change the subject. "I was wondering…"

"Sorry," Peter rudely interrupted. "I have to go to Hogsmeade for Pumpkin Pasties. My inventory is out of stock."

"You do that Wormtail," Sirius sighed, annoyed, and daring to fake a kick at him hard on the butt after he set off.

"As I was saying," James continued. "I was wondering if you guys wanted to spend Christmas break at my place."

"Sure!" Remus smiled. "My parents are visiting my cousins in America, anyway."

"Ooh!" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows, smiling mischievously, "American girls, huh?"

"Sirius!" Remus scolded. "American girls are way out of your league. I'm ashamed of you."

Sirius stepped back, placing a hand to his heard, pretending to be offended by the joke. "Okay," he said coming back to his normal self, "I'll come. But only one condition…you invite that HOT Arabella Frell and her friend Jessica, also. Wait…let's make this interesting…along with Bella and Jessica, you have to invite…_Lily_."

"Are you _serious_?!!" James yelled.

"Well, yeah, dude, read the nametag!" Sirius smirked at his little pun.

"I will _not _do it!"

"Oh, yes you will! Because then if you don't, I'll tell _Lily _embarrassing stuff about you that I'm sure she'd love to hear."

"Like what?!"

"Like how you still sleep with a stuffed animal."

"It is _not _a stuffed animal!" James protested. "It's a stuffed _golden snitch_."

"Yeah, big difference." Remus laughed.

"Still – no!" James panicked. "She _hates _me!"

"Uh, _hello_! There is a _way _to change that! What about my love doctor session?!"

"Ugh!" James complained. "Even with your _brilliant_ love doctor sessions, I highly doubt she's gonna fall for that, Sirius. It'll _never_ work! Did you even _see _when she ran out of the Great Hall this morning?! She was furious!"

"Just try!" the two boys begged in unison.

"Fine!"

And with that, James stormed off.

***

It was twelve a clock at night, and James was still in the Gryffindor common room. It was just so frustrating! Obviously, saying he was 'so open' that morning for the dance was stupid. He didn't mean to do stupid stuff all the time, honestly. But here Lily was mad at him. _Again._ How would he be able to invite Lily to the ball if she was angry at him?!

There was a shuffling of papers and a frustrated sigh.

He looked up.

There was Lily! She was sitting on the velvet couch, obviously having trouble with her piles of homework. She massaged her temples continuously, and closed her eyes for a moment.

James could have sat there for hours, gazing at that lovely auburn hair and stunning green eyes. But this was his chance. When before Christmas break was he going to be alone with no one but Lily in the usually busy Common room?

He took a deep breath, and walked up to her slowly. James cautiously sat down next to her.

"Um, hi."

She looked up and rolled her eyes, mad. "Look, I don't need a lot more pressure right now, so it would be nice if you could just leave." Lily sighed in exasperation.

"I – I can help if you want." James tried.

"Um…" she drawled over his words slowly. "And why suddenly do you want to help instead of tease?"

James shrugged casually, relaxing now.

"Fine." She finally decided. "But I swear, Potter, if this is another one of your tricks I'll-"

"It's not." He promised.

She studied him with those beautiful green eyes for a while, and then carefully handed him the homework. "I'm doing an essay on the History of Mirrals. Mirrals manage to make peace at war, and I'm supposed to find out how others have peace because of it…I have no idea what to do."

"Well, think of it this way," James reasoned, cocking his head to the left. "Say there's a humongous war. Soldiers are getting killed, and more are having their lives in risk."

Lily was paying a lot of attention to him now.

"But then some yahoo from otherness brings a Mirral. The Mirral will not only peace between the two countries, but will also bring settlement to the cities, love between families, and friendship between the two rivals. Get it?" James ended with a proud ending, and a big grin.

Lily's eyes widened with amazement. "W-wow James, I mean, Potter. I never thought of it that way. That was impressive."

James' eyes widened in mock disbelief and mouth formed a large circle. "Did Miss Lily Evans just give me a pure, real _compliment_?! Now that's a first!"

"Don't push your luck." She snarled. But James thought he saw a small smile playing on her lips.

"Thanks," she said.

Lily started packing up her things with care, and began to walk up the stairs to the Girls' Dormitories.

"Wait!" James cried. "One more thing!"

Lily paused half – way and turned to face James. He suddenly became very interested in the cuff of his sleeve. The moment of truth.

"Um…Sirius and Remus planned to visit my house for Christmas break…and they wanted to invite Arabella and Jessica, too. And, I-I was wondering if you wanted to come, also."

James heard a very small "okay," escape from Lily's mouth and then she ran into the Girls' Dormitories.

"Yes!" James whispered in triumph.

And then he sprinted to go tell Sirius and Remus.


	5. At the Potter's

Chapter 5 – At the Potter's

_Did I just agree to visit James Potter's house for Christmas?!! I must be crazy!_

Lily was having trouble with realizing that she was going to James' house for Christmas holiday break, and scolding herself for agreeing without the teensiest tiniest thought.

"Lily?"

_Everyone will think I like James! I don't! If only I could borrow a time turner and change everything. That way I wouldn't have to go. Why, why, did I say yes?!! What if – _

"Lily," said Arabella, waving her hand across her friend's face. "Earth to Lily!"

Lily, having lack of words, continued thinking and dazing off into the distance. But Arabella was very clever and came up with a solution to break Lily out of her shell.

"Oh, hello _James_!" she said rather loudly. "Now what are _you _doing here all alone in the _Girls Dormitories_?! What? Okay, Lily would _LOVE TO SEE YOU_!!!"

Lily instantly awoke from her trance, believing that James was actually in the room at the moment, and screamed. It took a short fifteen seconds for her to realize that James wasn't really there, and that Arabella had thought up another one of her clever tricks.

Bella was laughing wildly at the foot of Lily's bed to the point of tears. If someone could laugh up a thunder storm, it was Arabella.

"That – was – classic!" she managed through chokes of hysteria. "He was never _really _there!"

Lily groaned and fell back onto her bed.

"Come on, sleepyhead," Bella got control of herself, "it's been _two days _since James asked you to visit. Get over it! Besides, it will be fun! Me and Jessica will be there with you, and we'll have the time of our lives," Arabella gestured towards the snoring red-head, sleeping in the four poster bed across from them, her hair in a total birds nest. "Anyways, you have to get packed – _now_. We're leaving for James' house in an _hour_."

"So _soon_?" Lily whined.

"Yeah, dummy, it's Christmas Eve!"

Lily groaned once more and lumbered out of her bed. She couldn't help but wonder what Christmas would be like this year.

***

Even though it was winter, at James' house it was surprisingly warm. James, Sirius, and Remus had left for the Potter's house the night before, so when the girls arrived at the house, they were on their own.

Lily almost dropped her bags in seeing the place.

The mansion was three stories high, with a magnificent structure and figure. It pretty much could just sparkle with beauty!

There was a _slam! _And the girls looked up in time to see a young girl with black hair shut one of the highest windows closed with a snap.

"That must be James' lovely sister." Jessica muttered.

Finally, the girls walked up to the spectacular holly-wood double doors, lost for words.

Jessica knocked anxiously on the polished mahogany door, and stepped back quickly.

A pretty woman opened them with much grace, allowing the girls to catch a well amount of the mansion's fresh flower smell.

"Oh, welcome!" the woman said flashing a smile of her perfect white teeth. The lady was wearing a casual yet elegant dress and dark waves were pinned into a bun. She pointed to them separately. "You must be Jessica…oh! And you must be Arabella! I've heard a _lot _of stuff from Sirius about you...."

Bella blushed wildly.

"And you must be…Lily…" she winked at Lily as if she knew something she didn't. "Oh, please come in."

They all stepped into the glorious home and gazed around the insides of the suite. To their left was a grand sitting parlor, and to their right was a 17 feet tall Christmas tree. Regardless, the ceiling was far over 17 feet tall.

A muscular man with denim knee-length shorts and a red and white striped polo tee walked down the spiral staircase. "So _these _are the girls we've heard so much about huh?" the man said cheerfully.

The girls flushed happily.

"I guess I'm so happy to see you three," the woman giggled, "because I haven't had women company in such a long time. You can imagine what happens to you when you're surrounded by _men _all the time. Goodness, where are my manners? I haven't even introduced ourselves! I'm James' mom, Cherie. And this is my husband, John." She gestured towards the man.

They all shook hands and chatted for a minute or so.

"Hmm…" Cherie said. "The boys are in the back playing with those _huge _water guns James got last year for his birthday last year. They should be coming in any second now…"

Just then, there was a commotion from the end of the hall as James, Sirius, and Remus all came running in, wearing nothing but swim trunks, and dripping large portions of water onto the marble floor.

"Heyyyyyy girlies!" Sirius grinned.

Lily glanced at James once, and looked away immediately.

_Too bad I can't like him cause he has such a hot body…wait did I just actually think that?!!_

Lily looked around in embarrassment, when then she realized Arabella and Jessica were thinking the same exact thing about Sirius and Remus.

"Hey guys!" Arabella smiled uneasily, breaking out of her embarrassing trance.

"James, you have an _awesome _house. Thanks so much for letting us come!" Jessica grinned excitedly.

"Sure thing!" James beamed. "Um, I'll show you where you're sleeping."

"Boys!" cried Mrs. Potter. She threw them each a navy colored towel. "Watch the carpet!"

"We will," Remus said, always the one with the manners, "thank you very much."

The boys led them upstairs, and stopped at the first floor when several Frisbees flew dangerously close to James' head.

"Ha!" James chuckled. "Missed again!"

A young girl about eight or nine stepped out from behind a magenta silk curtain. She had short black hair, the same color as James', and was wearing a red T-shirt with a scull imprinted on front and underneath scrawled: _A Portrait of my Brother_.

"I'll get you someday, James," she snarled.

"You wish!" James snapped back.

"So…these are the new visitors…" the girl drawled. "Well at least you're better than _those _three." She wrinkled her nose in the boys' direction.

Remus shook his head sorrowfully. "I thought we had something, Alisha. That's too bad."

The girls laughed at Remus' joke, and when they looked up again, Alisha was gone.

"That's Alisha, my younger sister," explained James, "I swear she lives to annoy me."

"Aww…she's so cute!" Lily giggled, speaking up for the first time.

"In _some _ways."

The six teenagers continued upwards, as James showed some rooms to the girls. There was the music room, which included musical instruments some which Lily had never heard of, the library, which contained hundreds of books. The Party room, which was very large and fine for any sort of fiasco, and the Seeking room, where instead of walls, there was shatter proof glass, and had a fantastic view of the beach.

Finally, they reached the third floor. James showed them the room closest to the girls', which happened to be James' bedroom. James' room was large with Gryffindor banners, Quidditch news, and posters plastered to the scarlet painted walls. Two wooden king-size beds lay opposite from each other and a cot by the walk-in closet. He explained that Sirius slept in the second bed, because he basically lived at the Potters because of troubles with his horrible parents. James also told the girls that it was _Sirius, _and only Sirius, that put the posters of teenage girls in bikinis on the walls, and not himself. Although, James _did _ seem like he had participated in the act as well…

"I couldn't resist!" Sirius grinned.

After a few more minutes in James' bedroom, Jessica, Lily, and Arabella couldn't hold their excitement any longer and raced to see the room they would be staying in. They gasped.

The room had periwinkle walls and three marvelous silver metal beds. There was an old-fashioned telephone, three breathtaking paintings of daisies and wild flowers, and a sitting area with three dark leather recliners, a glass coffee table, and vase of lavender.

"Oh, this is wonderful!' sighed Jessica, her red hair twirling as she gazed around.

"Mm…" smiled Lily, taking in the scents of lavender, "tell your mother we said thank you, James. I _love _it."

"I will," he nodded happily. "Say, who wants to go swimming? The pool's heated."

"You have a pool _also_?!" Arabella asked incredulously.

"Yes, well, it's not very good but…"

"Heck, yeah it's good!" Sirius clapped with enthusiasm. "It's 13 feet deep!"

"_With _two diving boards and a Jacuzzi from Spain."

"Sweet!" Arabella jumped excitedly. "I heart African Jacuzzis!"

Everyone rolled her eyes. Someday, a long time from now, the day when Arabella realized the difference between Africa and Spain, would be the day everyone would go clubbing in Vegas. As if!

"Let's do it!"

"Oh, no, but we _can't_." Jessica whined.

"Why not?" Lily asked.

"We didn't bring bathing suits!"

"Aww man!" said Bella, falling in defeat on a random bed.

"No, no, it's okay!" reassured Remus. "There's a muggle shopping center nearby. You guys can buy bathing suits there."

"Good idea, Remus!" Jessica gushed. Remus blushed.

"I prefer you to wear bikinis." Beamed Sirius wickedly.

"Oh, _brother_." Sighed Lily.

***

Bright sunlight poured onto the girls' faces as they relaxed in the bubbling, cool hot tub.

Lily had bought a bright red one piece swimsuit. She wasn't exactly the one to show skin. But the unique thing about it was that it tied like a halter at the top. Even though the other girls had gotten more skimpy bathing suits themselves, Lily decided to wear something more…uh…modest.

Jessica got a sky blue two piece with board shorts, and Bella had gotten a pink and lime green polka dot bikini. Lily had asked her if she had bought it to impress Sirius, but she acted as if she didn't know a thing Lily was talking about.

At the moment, James, Sirius, and Remus were in the pool, having a contest to see who could do the best back flip.

"So, Lily…" drawled Arabella, "has James asked you yet?"

"Asked what?"

"Asked you to the Winter Ball, silly."

"What?! Why would he ask _me_?"

"Very funny, Lily." Bella shook her head, "_Everyone _knows that you like James."

"Arabella! Will you _ever _stop that?! _I do not like him_!"

"Lily, did I invite you to my B.B.Q.?"

"No…"

"Then why are you all up in my grill?"

Lily angrily sighed. "Bella – get a grip." Arabella could be a really good friend …but most of the time she was just a snob.

She smirked and continued filing her nails. "Whatever!"

Just then, Remus did a back flip a little too close to the Jacuzzi and sprayed water onto Bella's arm.

"Omigosh! This is _so _gonna ruin my tan!" she shrieked.

"You'll be fine." Jessica reassured, playing with the tie on her bathing suit.

"Hey, Bells?" Lily asked. "Where did you get that lip gloss? The color looks great on you."

Of course, that cheered her up.

She droned on about some make –up company in Hogsmeade and something about good French fries. Suddenly, Lily came up with an evil plan.

"Hey, guys," Lily interrupted. "Let's play a trick on the boys! While they're distracted, we'll sneak out of the Jacuzzi and hide behind those trees."

"Good idea!" Jessica grinned mischievously.

Sirius just managed to do a double front flip off the high board, and a big _splash! _erupted from the pool. James and Remus whooped and cheered for his accomplishment.

Seeing her chance, Lily crept out of the Jacuzzi steps, trying not to make any noise. Jessica and Arabella followed cautiously behind, and they all tip-toed to the red wood trees a little to the side of the pool side.

Beyond the pool, there seemed like miles and miles of paradise. There was a golf course with gleaming green well – mowed grass, a sea green water slide roller coaster that twirled around the estate, and even horse stables.

"Jeez!" Lily muttered. "I wonder what they do in the _summer_!"

There were a few loud voices from the pool, and the girls shuffled closer behind the redwood, clutching the bark anxiously.

Peeking around the tree, Lily could see that the boys had obviously discovered the girls had disappeared, and were desperately searching around the pool side.

About four minutes of unbearable silence and "girl hunting" the three couldn't help it anymore and started to crack up. They skipped out from behind the redwood tree and tried to calm their laughter, but couldn't. Arabella, who always laughed wildly, was practically screaming with funniness, and pointing aimlessly in the boys' direction.

Remus rolled his eyes playfully, and Sirius grinned, and James pretended it wasn't amusing but he couldn't help to look slightly impressed.

"Hey, James. I think we should teach these babes some tricks of our own!"


	6. Truth or Dare

Chapter 6 – Truth or Dare

Later that night, Lily gazed out at the beautiful star lit sky above her from the window, while wrapped in a pink fleece blanket in her cozy, warm bed. For some weird reason, it was hard to sleep. But she suspected it was probably just Christmas excitement.

"I'm bored," said Jessica, who was also having trouble with sleeping.

"How about we see if the boys are awake?" suggested Arabella.

The girls didn't need a second reason, and all scurried into James' rooms in slippers and fleece blankets over their flannel pajamas.

They found the boys wide awake, talking about something secretive.

"Are you _serious_?!" whispered James furiously.

"Of course I'm _Sirius_."

"Very _punny_."

"Well, you're not so puntastic yourself, mister serious."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"You guys!" Remus hissed, warning them about the girls' presence.

Sirius and James turned around and saw the girls.

"Crap." James muttered under his breath.

"Hey, uh, girlies…" Sirius nervously chuckled. "We were just, uh, talking about _puns_."

The girls raised their eyebrows as if saying: _yeah right!_

"Um, is it okay if we stay?" asked Lily.

"Sure." Remus yawned.

Sirius suddenly sat up from his bed, with a twinkle in his sparkling blue eyes. "I have an awesome idea!"

Even in the dim moon light, everyone could see Sirius was up to something.

"Truth," he waved his left hand to the side. "Or," he waved his right hand to the side. "Dare!" he waved both hands in front of his face.

Arabella giggled. "O-m-g! That _is _a totally awesome idea!"

Sirius winked at her.

All the rest agreed to play, and huddled together on James' bed. Luckily, it was so big to fit everyone. Everyone except for James was sitting in a circle facing each other. James had it easy, and could stay inside his blankets as he was before.

"I'll start!" squealed Jessica. "Remus, truth or dare."

"Truth." He mumbled nervously.

Jessica thought for a moment. "What's something embarrassing about yourself?"

"I…um…well…" Moony glanced at the ceiling. "Sometimes in the night I'll say these weird things. Like, once I said that we should give Frank Longbottom some medicine, and the next morning he had the flu. So, I guess it's sort of like telling the future."

James snorted. "Aww, c'mon, man! That's not embarrassing! _Creepy_, but not _embarrassing_."

Remus shrugged. "It's the only thing I could think of."

"Okay, Remus, your turn," said Lily anxiously, trying to get the game over with.

"Arabella, truth or dare."

"Truth." She mumbled.

"Do you like Sirius Black?"

Arabella didn't need to wait another second. "Yes!"

"Heyyyy," Sirius flicked back his hair. "It looks like I just found my date to the Winter Ball!"

Bella giggled and crawled over to snuggle in his arms. "Okay," Arabella grinned, while cuddling with Sirius. "Jessica…Tru – "

"Truth!" Jessica interrupted, getting onto her knees.

"Okay," she continued. "What would be the grossest and ugliest thing to you if it ever happened."

Jessica wrinkled her nose. "If Lily got married to Snape."

The guys laughed.

"Eww!" groaned Lily. "That's _disgusting_!"

Jessica grinned. "It was _supposed _to be disgusting."

"Jessica?" asked Bella, twirling her dark curls around her finger. "Is it alright if I do Sirius?"

"Sure." Jessica smirked.

"Sirius, truth or dare."

"Truth is for wimps," Sirius reasoned. "So, dare it is."

"Okay, show us that tattoo on your chest you claim is really there."

Sirius pulled up from under his shirt, rubbed his muscular chest, and sure enough, a tattoo the shape of a J.S.R. magically appeared. They could all guess what J.S.R. stood for. Even though Sirius did have a quite impressively toned chest, everyone's attention (except for Arabella's) was quickly turned back to the game.

"Hello!" Jessica said, flipping her red hair to the side. "It's my turn! James, T. or D."

James ruffled his hair messier, and grinned that flashy smile. "Dare."

Jessica thought for a moment and said, "Tell us if you like someone and who it is."

Sirius and Remus gave each other high fives, but Lily couldn't figure out why.

James laughed. "Isn't that a truth?"

Jessica shrugged.

"Yes, I _do _like someone. But there is _no way _I'm going to tell you who. And if one of my friends here spoil the secret…well…let's just say we won't be seeing each other for a while."

Remus unexpectedly gulped guiltily.

_Hmm…_

"Scary! Anyways, it's my turn so…Remus, truth or dare," Lily said. Of course, he said truth which was just what Lily wanted. "Have you recently kept a secret from your friends including a Star Fierce Code?"

Remus looked menacingly at Lily straight in the eye, and coldly sprouted, "Yes."

"Whoa!..." cried Sirius. "Now, _that _was weird. Although, I didn't really understand it. But anyways, Lily," he said with a glint of darkness in his eyes. "Truth…or…Dare."

"Truth." She whispered. Lily hoped it was dark enough for them all to see her blushing.

"Lily," Sirius stared. "Do you like….._James Potter_?!"

All were silent. No one moved. No one talked. Everyone looked at Lily, waiting for the answer. James fell back into his bed, rubbing his eyes and mumbling something that sounded like, "_Kill _Sirius! Ugh, the jerk."

Lily was so surprised she didn't know how to answer. "What? Wait, why would I like – Do you _think _I like – No – I mean, I don't know!" And she jumped out of the bed and ran out o the room. She sprinted into the bathroom, slammed and locked the door, and started to cry. Her friends were probably thinking how babyish she was. How much of a drama queen she was. How she _always _had to get her way and got mad at the littlest things.

There was a clatter of running footsteps, and pounding on the door. It was James. "Lily!" he yelled. "Open up! Please! Sirius didn't mean it – he's just clueless like that. He doesn't think about these things – "

"Go away!" Lily shouted between sobs.

After a few more minutes of pounding, James gave up and scurried back to his room.

"SIRIUS!" he screamed.

Lily got up the courage to peek through the door.

A confused Sirius stumbled out the door and looked around. Without any warning, James rushed up to him, pulled back his arm, and punched him in the nose. Even though Arabella was screaming and Sirius' nose had started to bleed, he knew it was better not to fight back, and prepared for another hurtful blow.

"What's going on here?!" cried Mr. Potter, coming out of nowhere.

James ignored his father and began to hit Sirius once again, but suddenly, John grasped his arms firmly (even though he looked as if he was struggling to keep hold) and strangled James back until he was completely defenseless.

Ashamed, James looked sadly at the ground. He looked too upset to say anything, but Lily thought she heard him whimper her name.

Oh. My. Gosh. What had she done?! She felt so stupid and self centered. Not to mention childish! Just because she had let someone get to her by asking who she liked, she just _had _to make a big deal out of it all and cause a huge fight. What was she going to do?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_**Sneak peek to Chapter 7 - Christmas Morning**_

_Plop_.

_Lily felt something drop on her lap. She looked up, and saw James walking away from her, ruffling his hair ferociously. She looked around, and saw that James must have given her the object. _

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys it's me, Care, thanks every1 4 reading so far! I hope you've liked it! BTW if you have any suggestions for the upcoming chapters, tell me tell me tell me!!! :)**** I heart you!**

**XOXO, CARE BEAR 3 :)**


	7. Christmas Morning

Chapter 7 – Christmas Morning

"Yeah, James feels better. But I swear, he was so mad at himself for losing himself over you. I wouldn't blame him, but seriously, Lily. You made a bloodbath over the littlest thing! It was just a _game_. It's a good thing he has some feelings for you. And besides, he could only be mad at Sirius for so long, and he made up with him in like 20 minutes. Will you be mad at him? I mean, this time he didn't even do anything. Please don't get mad at him, Lily, not on Christmas!"

Jessica was droning on about James and Sirius, but Lily was only half listening.

"Lily, will you be mad at him?!"

"N-no. I won't." she answered, finally.

"Good."

Jessica and Arabella had woken up early and had curled and straightened their hair, but Lily didn't want to do all that work, so she just put her hair in a high ponytail, and put on sweats.

"C'mon, guys!" Arabella jumped off her bed, her perky short dark curls even cuter today.

Jess and Bella raced down the stairs, while reluctant Lily was pulled along. They bounced down in the living room where the Potters' freakishly tall Christmas tree was. They found the boys already there, waiting patiently for the girls.

Lily sat down in and armchair, luckily, not next to James.

"Lily."

She looked up. Sirius was talking to her quietly while the others were distracted. "I'm sorry."

Lily quickly nodded. "Me too,"

It was the first time she'd actually seen Sirius sincere. She reached down to grab a present. Lily didn't really want to talk to him right now.

Jessica squealed, which made Lily break out of her trance.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Remus! I've wanted these for _ages_!" Jessica grinned happily, showing off her new designer high – heels.

Remus nodded. "You've told me. Five times."

Jess couldn't help herself. She leaped out of her chair and gave Remus a fleeting hug, leaving them both quite red in the face. Everyone laughed and James and Sirius wolf whistled.

Lily then decided that she would push the moments of yesterday night out of her head, and actually enjoy Christmas with her friends this year. This was a one and only chance; she wouldn't waste it.

Mrs. Potter walked into the room wearing a festive and pretty Christmas sweater and jeans, holding trays of hot chocolate balanced in each hand.

"Hot cocoa!" she cooed. "Alisha, John, and I are all celebrating our Christmas in my room, so you all enjoy yourselves."

After many mumbled thank you's, and lots of slurping noises with hot cocoa steam floating in the air, Sirius began to open his present from Arabella. He looked inside the gold box and his eyes grew wide in disbelief.

"Is the gift okay?"Bella asked nervously.

"Okay?!" Sirius cried. "It's _awesome_!!" Sirius smiled with whipped cream bobbing on his lips. "A free pass at Zonko's Joke Shop for _whatever you want_!" he proudly raised the ticket for all to see. James' eyes followed the pass longingly, as if it was a god.

"But, I only thought V.I.P.'s could buy this." Sirius wondered, confused.

"Oh, honey," Arabella smirked. "I have connections, remember?"

The rest of Christmas morning passed considering well for Lily. She received make–up and a halter top from Arabella, a pair of fuzzy socks and fleece sweatshirt from Jessica, a book called: _How to Crack the Code: BY YOURSELF!_, from Remus, and a bottle of perfume from Sirius.

"Where'd you get this perfume from?" questioned Lily.

"I…um…you see…I made it myself." The boys snickered. Lily decided not to even touch that thing, knowing it was most likely a prank.

James didn't give Lily a present, but he probably wouldn't have after last night.

An hour later, while Arabella and Jessica were having fun giving a 'make over' to Sirius, Lily was sitting under the Christmas tree, realizing how happy she was that she came here. It was a beautiful day; a small sun ray shining through the wet clouds.

_Plop_.

Lily felt something drop on her lap. She looked up, and saw James walking away from her, ruffling his hair ferociously. She looked around, and saw that James must have given her the object. On her lap was a small white velvet box. An elegant L was carved on top. She delicately unwound the clasp and propped open the box. Lily gasped. It was a music box. A beautiful tune played soundly while on a plush satin cushion lay a beautiful emerald gem necklace. It was so simple, but ever so stunning, it almost made her eyes water. It must have cost a fortune, too! Why would James spend so much money on her, though?

"Whoa!" Arabella walked up to Lily, with everyone following behind. "Lily who _gave _you that?!"

Lily looked James straight in the eye and smiled. Maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong about James all along after all.

"A friend."


	8. AUTHOR NOTE ON CHAPTER 7

AUTHOR'S NOTE ON CHAPTER 7 – CHRISTMAS MORNING!

Hey guys I've noticed that a lot of people have been asking what Lily gave to James for Christmas! I decided not to have Lily give him a present…but she will personally be giving him many "presents" *wink wink* later on! ;) So don't worry!

Coming up in Taking Chances…….the Winter Ball! Any guesses on who will take who??? I'm sure you'll be very surprised in that chapter!!!

Sneak Peek to Chapter 8 –

_Lily was lost for words. "N-no I won't forgive you. I never will." Suddenly, Lily felt the rush of adrenaline hit her body like a wrecking ball. What was happening???_

_"I – I,"_

"_Lily, I know I'm…..different than others. But I wondered…..if you might want to be my date for the Winter Ball?"_

Who could be talking to Lily?!?! James??? WELL YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO WAIT TO FIND OUT!

If you want me to add the chapter, start reviewing! ;)

XOXO CARE


	9. A Date for the Winter Ball

**Alright, alright! You guys persuaded me to update! LOL that's a good thing! Here is Chapter Nine….**

Chapter 9 – A Date for the Ball

James sat up tiredly from his four poster bed.

Two days ago, they had arrived back at Hogwarts and James had exactly four days to find a date to the Winter Ball. He needed to find a way to make Lily go with him! Already, at least 32 girls had asked Sirius, and 34 had asked James. Also, Remus (_Remus_ of all people!) had gotten a date before him and asked Jessica. And knowing Jessica, she said yes.

"Great," sighed Remus. "Breakfast is in five minutes. James _just _woke up, and Sirius is _still _looking for his hair product."

"Has anyone seen my hair gel?!" Sirius yelled from the bathroom.

"_Honestly_, Padfoot," James rolled his eyes. "If we actually _used _hair gel, maybe we would have!"

Sirius came out of the bathroom and stuck out his tongue.

"Three minutes!" Remus impatiently tapped his foot.

"Okay, okay!" Sirius scrunched up his nose. "I'll just have to somehow survive the day without my loving, expensive, super, amazing hair gel."

And with that, the three scurried out of the Boys' Dormitories, avoiding the swarms of anxious giggling girls, willing enough to skip breakfast for a chance to be asked out by the Hogwarts Heart Throbs.

The boys managed to grab a few sausages and a slice of bacon before the cleaning hags stopped at the Gryffindor table to chomp all the remaining food to bits. Shortly, they had to run to Charms class. They stormed in right when the class began.

"Sit down! Please sit down!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. "I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break. Oh! It looks as if someone was kind enough to give me a present!" Sure enough, a brightly wrapped box with a yellow ribbon sat upon his desk. Professor Flitwick, who always loved gifts, had to open it immediately. He reached across the desk, frightfully stretching his little arms to the limit, and grasped the rectangular box tightly in his hands. "Oh!" he squealed, tossing the wrapping paper behind him. "It's new quills! Oh, I do love new quills. Quills are so much fun. Say, I will write my name with these quills. These quills look unusual. Quills are fun!"

The students sighed in unison at the Professor's sudden excitement. It was going to be a long day.

Professor Flitwick uncapped an ink bottle to the right of him, and tugged a quill out of one of the slots. He began to scribble delightfully on a piece of parchment, when suddenly, his face grew troubled. He dabbed more ink on the quill, scribbled some more, but still, no ink was transferring onto the piece of parchment. "Oh, oh dear. It seems as if something is wrong with these quills. Oh, dang flabbit lemon pops!" Suddenly, the professor began to laugh hysterically. The students peered over the tops of their desks to see the quill itself seemed to be…tickling him?

Sirius leaned over to James with a sure smirk on his face.

James nodded, smiling. "Nice one."

The Charms lesson that day included: 1. Not listening to the teacher. 2. Flicking garbage at Snape. And, 3. Stealing glances at Lily. James flashed back at the times when Lily hated James. She called him names, glared, screamed, and totally loathed him. So, did she still hate him? He had stopped hexing geeks just for the fun of it, and avoided the temptation of teasing nerds, but that still didn't seem to impress her. Although she did seem pretty nice to him at Christmas. Whatever Lily was trying to show, she was sending mixed feelings.

So what did Lily think of James now?

***

The next day, James was thinking the same exact thing he'd been thinking in Charms. It was 6:30 and the classes had been canceled because of an "accidental" fire made by Sirius in the laboratory. What could ever happen next?

*******

Lily was walking down the hall when Severus Snape came up to her.

"Go away." She said coldly, not in the mood to talk to that putrid face of his.

She speed walked into the courtyard, ignoring the smirks and confused stares as students watched Snape try to catch up to Lily, and her giving him the cold shoulder. Unfortunately, Snape was trailing her quite quickly.

"Wait!" he pleaded to her.

Lily ignored him, now by the lake and tried to forget his presence by watching the sunset.

"Lily,"

There he was. Standing right in front of her. They were the only ones by the bank and all they could see were each other. Lily actually had the opportunity to really look at him for the first time. His hair wouldn't be so disgustingly oily if he washed it once and a while, and huge nose could be cured with a simple shrinking spell, but all she could really see was an ugly, stupid boy pleading to forgive him.

"Please forgive me!" he whispered, clutching her shoulders. She shook him off. "You're the only one I can say it to."

Lily was lost for words. "N-no I won't forgive you. I never will." Suddenly, Lily felt the rush of adrenaline hit her body like a wrecking ball. Was she really mad at Snape for bugging her all the time? Or hurting James? What could this mean? Was she not forgiving Snape because she was mad at him for almost killing James? What was happening???

"I – I,"

"Lily, I know I'm…..different than others. But I wondered…..if you might want to be my date for the Winter Ball?"

Lily didn't know what to say for a moment. This couldn't be happening. She knew for sure that she did _not _want to go with Severus Snape to the Winter Ball. But then, who did she want to go with? _James?! _All this time, had she actually wanted James all along? Did she just not realize it???

But then, Lily felt kind of sorry for the guy. He came out here, kept asking for forgiveness, and kept getting hurt each time. Lily thought what it would be like to actually accept to go to the ball with him. It might not be that bad, really. But then she thankfully remembered that Snape was a betraying, un-loyal, lying, stupid, ugly jerk.

Lily pretended to look sad, thinking quickly of something to say. "I – I'm really sorry, Severus, but I'm already going with someone." She lied between her teeth. What? Where was she going with this?

"With _who_?!" he demanded.

Lily tried to think up a smart and clever lie, but nothing came. A large number of arrows and stars scrolled through Lily's head. But they all pointed to one unbelievable boy. Did she dare?

"One second," said Lily, holding up one finger and turning towards Hogwarts grounds. "JAMES!"

*******

Lily's yell traveled loud and clear all the way through the courtyard and into the hall James was in. He was talking with James, Remus, Peter, Arabella, and Jessica. When he suddenly heard a piercing yell scream his name. Somehow, he knew exactly what Lily wanted.

"Scuse me – my date awaits!"

With many smiles from his friends, Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed him into the boys' bathroom. James stood proudly in front of a bathroom sink mirror with Remus and Peter to his left and Sirius to his right. He examined his face for a moment, being very serious.

"Comb?" James held out his hand to Sirius, receiving almost instantly a blue hairbrush.

"Check." The boys answered.

"Grease?"

"Check."

"Sunglasses?"

"Check."

"Leather jacket?"

"Check."

"Mouth Spray?"

"Check."

"Good looks?"

Peter rubbed his chin. "Um…I _think _so…"

James glared.

"Check!" Peter squealed immediately.

"Chocolate?"

"Chocolate? Why do you need _chocolate_?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"It relieves my nerves!" James insisted.

Sirius snorted.

"Well, _actually_, Sirius," said Remus in his know-it-all voice, coming into the conversation. "I read that chocolate really _does _help. Not only does the sugar make you focused and energized, but also helps with calming your nerves. I carry three packs with me everywhere."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Whatevs."

James went back to business. "Cologne?"

"Check."

"Hair gel?"

"Oo! Oo! I have some!" squealed Peter happily, jumping up and down and handing James a large bottle of hair-styling gel.

"Hey!!!" Sirius yelled. "That's _my gel_!!! I've been looking for that _everywhere_!!!"

"Oh," Peter said nervously, looking down. "Sorry. I forgot to give it back to you."

"Well what did you need it for?!"

"Um…well…you see….I had to use it for my…um…_pet_."

Sirius' eyes widened fearfully. "W-what's your p-pet again, Peter?!"

"Oh, you mean Toady the Toad? Yeah, you see Toady has some _skin problems_, you see, and um, the doctor said hair gel might, um, smooth his…_warts_."

"Warts?" Sirius asked weakly. His eyes fluttered and Sirius began to faint, but luckily Remus caught him just in time before he tumbled to the hard floor.

"Well, boys," James said, unsure of himself, but also wanting to get out of this awkward conversation, "Wish me luck."

And with that, he sped off to find Lily.

He finally saw her by the lake with that Ugly Prat Snivelus. He _better _not have done anything to her. James jogged up casually. He gave an ugly look to Snape and then looked at Lily for an explanation.

"Um, you see, James…Severus just asked me to be his date for the Winter Ball…." Lily uneasily started.

Somehow, James automatically knew where Lily was going with this.

"Hey, Snape," James smirked. "Stay away from Lily, she's _mine_."

Severus Snape, shocked by that statement and having a flash back of him saying those same words a while ago, looked at them for a moment and sighed. "Lily, can't you give me another chance?" he begged.

Lily took a deep breath. "Snape, did I invite you to my B.B.Q.?" she asked, quoting Arabella.

"N-no." Sirius said, confused.

"Then _why _are you all up in my grill?"

Snape looked surprised. Big time. And, so was James. He had never heard Lily say anything mean to anyone. But she deserved big time brownie points for that one. Although, it sounded a bit like Arabella…

"W-well," Snape stuttered, looking down. "Goodbye."

Lily and James watched Snape sorrowfully sulk away back to Hogwarts, his robes flying behind somberly from the swish of wind.

"Yeah!" James grinned. He lifted his hand for a high five, but stopped midway, remembering it was Lily. But in spite of it, Lily smiled nervously.

Lily suddenly realized that it _was _James she had been waiting for. All this time, she was slowly falling in love, with not even knowing it. It was just those simple, silly things that didn't mean any sense. She thought she had hated James. He was a back-stabbing, blubbering, idiot who was proud and took his popularity for a wrong cause. But now she had begun to discover that he was also sweet, caring, and a good person who all along had tried to be Lily's friend.

"Uh, James?" she said softly. "Um, I probably shouldn't be asking you this, but…"

James smiled excitedly, egging her on.

Lily almost forgot what she was saying, staring into those beautiful chocolate brown eyes. "I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the Winter Ball."

James couldn't help himself. "YES!" he shouted, his voice echoing off into the mountains.

Lily laughed.

"I thought you'd never ask." He grinned wildly.

***

"Lily, what are you grinning about? It's creeping about?" asked Jessica.

"I just got a date for the Winter Ball."


	10. Dresses, Dresses, more Dresses!

Chapter 10 – Dresses, Dresses, More Dresses!

"Omigosh! I can _still _not believe you're going with James! I mean, _sure_. _Everyone _can see Sirius and I are the perfect couple, but _no one _expected for Ms. Picky to go with Mr. Heart Throb Hunky!" Arabella squealed happily.

Arabella had _insisted _that Lily and she went shopping in Hogsmeade for dresses to wear to the Winter Ball, and that was sadly what the two were doing right now.

After what seemed like miles and miles and miles of walking in the torture tool platform heels Bella had forced her to wear so they would be broken in for the dance, Lily and Arabella finally stopped at a large, expensive, girly store called Lucky. The walls were painted with a blinding forget-me-not pink, and tiled floor sparkled with obnoxious silver glitter.

"_Why _do we have to go here?! I hate it already. It's way too girly girl." Lily demanded.

Arabella pursed her lips, and rested her hands on her hips. "Lily, do you sell fertilizer?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "No."

"Good, because you _obviously _think I give a crap."

Arabella tugged Lily to a long lavender check-out counter in the middle of the store. Of what it seemed like, hundreds of girls were in line already, talking loudly and holding dresses to buy.

A lady dressed in a sugar pink work uniform and a nametag that read: _Hi! My name is: Candy! _stood behind it. "Hi, welcome to Lucky! How may I help you today?" she said in a preppy voice.

Arabella leaned across the counter nonchalantly, her head tilting backwards. "Picture this," she explained, arranging her hands in front of her in a box-like formation. "Really cute guy. Not just _cute_, _gorgeous_. And he asks you to the ball. But a serious emergency occurs: _nothing _to wear."

Candy nodded seriously. "I totally follow you," Lily rolled her eyes at this. "Come with me."

Candy led the two girls to a whole section of the store with actually amazing dresses.

"All these dresses are suitably desired for 'emergencies'," she air quoted. "You should definitely find _something _here. If you need any help, call for Candy!'

"Thank you," Lily weakly smiled as she watched the worker walk away, although she really wanted to say: _Save me!_

"Oh, these are _perfect_!" Arabella said, flipping through a sales rack. "Okay, girl," she grinned, grabbing a huge pile of clothing, "Let's try em' on!"

The next two hours passed with lots of "dresses a go go's" and "dress rejects". So, Lily didn't expect anything big when she walked out of the changing room to model another gown.

"Oh. My. Gosh. Lily, that's the one!"

Lily hadn't noticed how elegant and pristine this dress was when she was trying it on. An emerald sleeveless gown, she was wearing, with gold lace, a dark green ribbon around the waist band, and a light and soft green liner over the torso. Dark green velvet swirls cascaded the hem, and back was weaved in a stunning and spectacular criss-crossed formation.

"Wow!" Lily actually smiled, looking at herself in the large mirror.

"Ohhh, yeah!" Arabella grinned, nodding her head. "James is definitely going to like this!"

For once in their lives, Bella and Lily both agreed that fashion was remarkable.

Arabella chose an aqua marine dress that sleeves ran across her shoulders, had the same criss-cross weave in the back as Lily, and hem dropped to her lower knees. It looked beautiful with her blue eyes and dark curls.

The girls left happily, skipping arm to arm and holding their dresses carefully in its zip up bag.

"Smoothies on me – to celebrate!" Lily insisted.

"Nice one!" Bella agreed. "Except I call the tiki strawberry melon this time!"

Lily rolled her eyes and smiled, even though she didn't know what a tiki strawberry melon shake was. "Whatevs."

***

"You were _what_?!" asked Lily loudly, not believing what she was hearing.

"Dreaming about Remus." Jessica dazed, her eyes rolling dreamily. She belly-flopped onto the four poster bed and smiled at the ceiling.

"Oo la la!" Arabella smiled. She was modeling her gown for the fifth time, searching for the smallest mistake, rip, or blemish. "I didn't know you had a _thang _for Remus!!"

"Neither did I," Jess admitted. "Until he came up to me and swept me into his arms and said," she lowered her voice into a Remus-like tone, "You are the _love _of my _life_."

"Uh, reality check!" sighed Lily. "That never _happened_."

"Probably never will," Jessica said in a mock somber voice. "But I bet that will _totally _happen with you and James!"

"You go girlfriend!" cried Arabella from the bathroom, pumping her arm up in triumph.

"Shut _up_!" Lily cried, embarrassed. "Why do you always have to say stuff like that?!"

Arabella ran up and jumped up on Lily's bed in front of her. "Because you're the only things _interesting _in our lives!" She placed both hands in the air, weighing them up and down like a measuring scale. "Lily…James?...Lily?...James…James…_Lily_?!"

Lily couldn't help it anymore and gave Arabella a good _smack! _on the head with her pillow. Which led Lily to triumph, Bella to anger, and Jessica to hysteria.


	11. The Winter Ball and a Deadly Ending

Chapter 11 – The Winter Ball

"Oh…yeah!" nodded Arabella as she propped Jessica's hair into an elegant French twist.

"Wow!" Jessica grinned. "Thanks, Bells!" she gave Arabella a fleeting hug.

Arabella smirked as Jessica gave her a squeeze. "Story of my life. Now......it's Lily's turn!"

"I'm scared." Lily grumbled as she reluctantly sat down in the swivel chair in front of the mirror, as she prepared to take on the torment of "Arabella Hair Salon".

After a small argument, Bella persuaded Lily to have her hair curled down, and not up. An hour of curlng irons, millions of bobby pins, and hair products later, the girls were ready and more beautiful than ever.

"Hey I was thinking," Jessica said as the girls did their finishing touches in front of the mirror, "since Remus and I have never officially started dating, maybe I should ask him!"

"Sounds like a plan," Arabella commented while curling her eyelashes with mascara with expert taste, "I mean, he's already head over heels for you,"

"Really?" she asked softly.

"For the last time Jessica," Lily and Arabella stood up straight from leaning towards the mirror, with lipstick and mascara in hand, and said in unison, "Really."

Jessica blushed and applied some of her cherry bomb lipgloss to avoid talking about it anymore.

"So guys," Bella said, turning around slowly as if practicing on a runway, "Whaddaya think?" she gestured towards her hair, make up, and dress. Arabella's short dark curls were pinned into an elegant bun, with a few curly tendrils falling down off the sides to frame her face. The shiny aqua marine earrings matched her breath-taking dress, and thanks to her MAC navy blue eye shadow, her blue eyes seemed to sparkle.

"You look great Bells," Lily said, smiling at her friend.

Arabella snorted and rolled her eyes. Lily and Jessica glanced at each other and grinned knowing she was very tempted to say, 'I know!' "Not _me_, silly girls, I'm talking about _you_! Did I do a fabulous job or what?"

Truth be told, Arabella had done a fabulous job. Jessica was wearing a strapless, silk, hot pink dress that fell down to her feet. Diamond-like jewels decorated the top and soft ruffles lined the bottom. She was glad to say she was wearing the heels Remus had given her for Christmas. Her fiery hair in the pretty French twist, sparkled with a diamond head- band and had created her once pale lips into a cheery, cherry, red color.

Lily had, of course, her amazing green gown that accented her eyes. Arabella added a bejweled velvet belt that wrapped around the bust, and all in all made people just plain stare in jealousy or awe. Green emerald earrings and the necklace Lily had recieved from James at Christmas, was perfect for this look, and stunning auburn hair was curled brilliantly into a lovely cascade of ringlets. Her dark green gown seemed even more magnificent up close, and thin figure was flawless by night.

They sighed in content and nodded. Arabella, Jessica, and Lily all looked beautiful.

The girls giggled and hugged each other delicately, making sure not to wrinkle their dresses.

"Girls," Arabella said, ruffling her curls. "Get ready for the gun show."

***

Finally, it was time for the Winter Ball to begin and hundreds of Hogwarts students in dresses and suits swarmed the main hallway, either waiting for their dates, or wanting to get inside.

Several girls accidentally bumped into Lily because of the squished crowd, and looked at her dress enviously. Then they uneasily pushed on.

"Oh. My. Gosh!!!" squealed Arabella excitedly. "There's Sirius! Oh, he looks so _fine_!!!

"Do I look okay?" she asked, facing them and fidgeting with her hair and earrings.

"Ah-dorable." Assured Lily. "Now hop to it. You should go with her too, Jess, I remember hearing the boys talking that Remus and Sirius would be together."

Arabella and Jessica smiled at her gratefully. "Good luck!" Then they skipped off to their dates, soon disappearing from sight.

Watching her two friends skip off to their dates, Lily suddenly thought of when she used to _hate _James; _despise _James. Back then, the only time she would accompany him to a ball would be in nightmares. So, in real life, would this be a good or bad dream?

Lily gasped aloud. James. He was waiting by the gates for her, hands in his pockets, eyes searching among the many girls. He looked _very_ handsome. Undescribably handsome! Sooner or later, the students began to pile into the ball room, leaving only Lily standing there by the brush. James finally noticed her. His mouth dropped in astonishment, but quickly remembered she was watching and pushed it back up. He grinned that flashy smile of his, even though tonight it looked a little nervous, and held out his hand invitingly.

Lily hesitantly flowed down the marble steps, almost tripping over her gown, but luckily caught herself before anything major happened.

James took her hand tenderly and smiled. "Hey, uh, I couldn't see you there."

"Um, it's okay."

They walked in. The Grand Ballroom was decorated in a beautiful winter scene. Light blue twirled ribbons hung from the sides, and dance floor was supposed to be real ice. It was as if it were all a breathtaking dream. **(Portraying HP movie #4 at the ball)**

"You, you look…" James stuttered looking at her softly.

"Yes?" Lily asked.

James was wearing a shiny black Italian tuxedo. He had somehow managed to comb back his hair, and looked very, very, cute. No not just cute. HOTT. Period.

"You look nice…"

"What? I can't hear you." Lily egged on.

James looked at her strangely. He was talking normally, not quietly.

"You _could _answer me." She rolled her eyes.

"Well, I was just trying to give you a…"

"A _compliment_?"

"Hey, _lovers_!" Sirius valiantly interrupted their moment, swinging a butter beer in one hand, and was linked arms with Arabella in the other. He was surely catching attention in his bright pink satin tux with black tie, and blue eyes seemed sparky and excited.

"It would be _awesome _if there was a rock band here and not _symphony_." Sirius sneered at the word. "They play _symphony _at the _ballet_."

The four laughed.

"I can tell you really actually enjoy the ballet, then." Lily reasoned, smiling.

"Actually, I do!" Sirius turned starry-eyed, "Pretty ballerinas."

Arabella rolled her eyes sarcastically. "C'mon, ballet boy," she tugged his bright pink sleeve, "let's go dance."

Even though she was trying to fake it, Lily and James could hear Arabella complain to Sirius as soon as they walked off. "You like _ballerinas_?!"

"Um…" James smiled at first at the sight of Arabella and Sirius but then looked hopeful as he asked, "Hey do you wanna dance? You know, just so Sirius won't bug us."

Lily raised her eyebrows. Hmm so Sirius won't 'bug' them. "Rrriiiggghhhttt," she rolled out the word.

James awkwardly led Lily onto the dance floor, and cautiously put a strong hand around her waist. Lily clasped his hand and felt herself blush. For some weird reason, his hands felt nice!

_Oh, please please PLEASE don't be a slow dance!!! _

But coming from Lily's bad luck, the band started to play a slow dance with a meaningful tune.

_What do you say to taking chances? What do you say to jumpin' off the edge?_

Lily, from the corner of her eye, saw Sirius and Arabella dancing, of course having the time of their lives. She also spotted Jessica smiling up at Remus as well. They were perfect for each other.

Well....it was sort of getting awkward between Lily and James. They both did not dare to look at each other in the eyes but Lily wanted to be friendly."So…how'd you get your hair so straight?" she asked, trying to start up a conversation.

He smiled playfully, knowing Lily was trying to make the dance comfortable. He chuckled. "Sirius' hair gel. It turns out it really _does _work."

James was acting so casually. Obviously, he wasn't nervous anymore. Unlike Lily.

"I sort of like the messier hair style on you better," she swallowed.

He winced, in surprise and then looked at her curiously. "Well, um, I like your 'hair style' any time, Lily. You look very beautiful tonight."

She smiled at her feet. "Thanks."

"I mean it."

It took a moment for Lily to talk again. "Hey, why do you act so different now?" Lily asked suddenly.

"W-what do you mean?" he asked, confused.

"Well, you used to act kind of like a…I don't know…a _show off_. Now you're…different."

He smiled. "Haven't you figured it out already?"

"What?"

"Why, I'm 'different' so to speak."

"No. I just thought you had a sudden different point of view, I guess. I mean, maybe you just decided to…change."

"Maybe I changed…because you changed."

Lily looked up into those engaging brown eyes. What did he mean?

_What do you say to taking chances? What do you say to jumpin off the edge?_

All so quickly, Lily stepped in closer and James bent down. Was this really happening? Lily's breath started quickening and her eyes went wide while staring into James' chocolate brown ones. Both heads cocked sideways and before they could share the most memorable moment of their life –

"James!"

They quickly stepped back.

_Wow_, thought Lily. _I can't believe I almost actually kissed James Potter!_

"Omigosh! Omigosh! Omigosh!"

A crying Arabella ran up to them.

"J-James!" she sobbed, her mascara smearing, as she frantically fanned herself. "Th-they, they took him! They took Sirius!"

James frantically looked around for his friend in a pink tuxedo and black long hair, but did not prevail. He sprinted off out the front doors before anyone could stop him. Lily followed anxiously.

Outside Hogwarts, the dark night was twinkling, allowing Lily to make out the silhouette of James, running in the distance.

"James!" she yelled, pulling off her heels, and throwing them behind her, "WAIT!"

"STAY THERE LILY!" James shouted loudly without turning back.

Of course she wouldn't, and continued with much effort, running and following James until she reached the lake. When she reached them, she saw Macnair, Avery, and Mulciber levitating James, and Sirius, seriously injured and bloody, off to the side by the peach tree.

Sirius saw Lily, hiding behind the bushes, and managed to signal her to get away. But she stood firm.

James was being levitated over the lake, his head closest to the water. It seemed like a pretty lame punishment, but when Lily looked closely into the cold water, one could see hundreds and thousands of razor sharp rock shards laying directly beneath. She could just see James falling to his death. Lily gasped.

"Oh, hello _mudblood_." Sneered Mulciber. "Do you like our little punishment for Jamsie Boy here?" The Slytherins snickered evilly.

"Okay, it only works when Sirius calls me that," James said, rolling his eyes.

"Let him go!" Lily pleaded.

Avery snorted. "Yeah, right! Not after James made us look like idiots. I mean, seriously, who's lame idea was to put me into a teddy bear?"

"As a matter of fact it was mine!" Sirius called weakly from the sidelines.

"Okay, James," said Macnair, rolling his eyes. "Enough chat. Which do you think would be most pleasant to watch suffer? You or your girlfriend?"

James looked at Lily intently and whispered, "Me."

"No!!!" screamed Lily, trying to strangle Mulciber, who was the one dangling James, but Avery held her back.

Suddenly, there was a loud splash and a painful scream, and Lily fell to the ground in despair.

Why? Why? Why? Why???

Lily looked up and saw Mulciber start a fire to one of the nearby bushes, and a dangerous flame began to grow. She saw Sirius screaming, too hurt to confront the Slytherins, but expressing his anger furiously. There was an unknown rage flickering in his eyes now, instead of his usual happy twinkle. Lily was enraged as well, but weaker in mental wise.

She didn't understand. How could those boys be _so evil_?! To kill a loved one was so unexpected, so surprising. She had never guessed they would go this far. But they had. It was over. James was dead. No longer would she see giggling girls walk by him excitedly. No longer would she hear his cocky replies. No longer would there be that spark of enjoyment of the Hogwarts Heart Throbs in the school hallway. And no longer would she see those beautiful chocolate brown eyes. It was completely, unthinkably over.

Through her tear soaked eyes, Lily could barely see Mulciber, Macnair, and Avery run away at the sound of footsteps and a bloody red substance floating through the water in front of her. Arabella, Jessica, Remus, and Professor Dumbledore stumbled into the scene.

Arabella screamed and ran over to Sirius. Jessica started to cry and came to Lily. Remus looked around for any victims, and put out the growing fire. Professor Dumbledore frowned and shook his head, shocked.

Jessica stroked Lily's forehead. "Oh, honey. I'm sorry." She sobbed.

"I'm sorry too." Lily whispered. Then she cried so hard until she could cry no more.


	12. AUTHOR NOTE ON CHAPTER 11

AUTHOR'S NOTE ON CHAPTER 11 – THE WINTER BALL AND A DEADLY ENDING

Hey fabulous gals! As I have received messages from many of you, it seems like you are very persistent about not wanting James to die. For example:

_**From user BadBoyHarleyLover**_: _WHAT?! OH MY FREAKIN GOD?!?! Dude, that came out of nowhere. But i refuse to believe that James is dead. No! That was so full on!_

_Godammnit i really need to hit something. i am going to kill Mulciber, Macnair, and Avery! Ah! My imagination is running wild. Oh god! I just had a very weird feeling that in the next chapter James is hurt badly but stable- and Lily is broken and suddenly realises she loves him but then wham! Severus comes out of nowhere and comforts her! She accepts and they do something they regret! and James wakes up just as it happens and is shocked! Oh no. you see i_

_really have a problem! Too much of an imagination. But let's hope you don'twrite that._

_Update! Please!_

_PS I wonder why we didn't see Snape in this chapter. Something fishy is going on!_

Haha love you BadBoyHarleyLover! ;)

Another Example:

_**From user st4rxx94: **__NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!_

_PLEASE DON'T DO THIS_

_PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE UPDATE SOON!_

_CLIFF HANGER MUCH!!_

_AHH :(_

Love you too! And all of my other readers/reviewers/ subscribers!!!

But since I love torturing you all I will put a sneak peek of the next chapter………..

_Um, have you heard anything about James?" Lily asked anxiously. _

_Sirius frowned. "Madam Pomfrey said it was very rare that he might survive, considering he broke more than two thirds of bones in his body."_

_They all waited on the bed beside James, waiting. _

_For a chance._

_For a sign._

_For a miracle._

Hee hee that's all im gonna let you read!!!!!! Keep on reading!

XOXO, CARE


	13. Finally Figuring Out

**Ok guys here's what you've been bugging me to put on for so long!!!!!!!**

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 12 – Finally Figuring Out

Lily studied the paper that was supposed to be her Transfiguration essay; that was now cramped with endless question marks. She tried, she really did! But she could absolutely not focus at the moment. Whenever she was in class, or with her friends, or writing a paper her thoughts always strayed to a certain boy who she had no clue was living or dead. Lily realized her friends (not to mention all of Hogwarts) were acting the same way. At breakfast her friends would not talk to each other, just sorrowfully play with their food or stare at their shoes. Of course, only Lily, who was James' lover, Sirius, James' best friend, and Remus, James second best friend, were taking it the hardest. Lily had cried her heart out that painful night. And the night after. And the night after that!

She'd never actually thought Sirius would be in this agony as well, but the next night, after not seeing Sirius anywhere during the day, she found Sirius sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, his eyes red and puffy as if he hadn't slept at all. His light blue eyes were now a melancholy grey, and his skin was pale. He was just sitting there, staring into the fire. He looked so…sad. What happened to the playful, happy, Sirius? Everyone just _had _to be happy around Sirius they just _were_. Lily had no choice than to go and comfort him. So they sat together almost the whole night in that common room, on that exact chair. The first thing Sirius said was: "I can't believe this actually happening Lily," and then Lily cried. Sirius held his sadness in, but just had to hug Lily. She was as sad as he was, after all. So he held her.

The first couple of days had been hard for Lily. She almost thought it wasn't fair. After all of these years at Hogwarts, she had just come to realize James was the perfect one for her, but then he had to go and…um…die! She had come to realize that it was never going to be the same with her and James. He would always, always be that one boy she used to be in love with. Well, for at least she had been with him for a night. She was also having these weird feelings about her grandchildren one day asking about that one hottie she fell in love with long ago.

_"Grandma! Tell us about that one boy you liked in Hogwarts!"_ Two young children would ask, happily sitting below her while she rocked in a rocking chair. They would be flipping through a fading scrap book of Lily's times at Hogwarts. Soon, they would come to a section of a book where they would see a very handsome teenager, grinning a flashy smile. Under the picture it would read: _My Lovely James_

"_Oh I didn't just _like _him sweetheart. I loved him. He was amazing," _she would answer with a knowing smile, remembering what happened between them.

_"Wow," _the two grandchildren would smile. One had Lily's stunning red hair but the other one had…a familiar greasy black color. Huh?

"_Even more amazing than Grandpa Snape?!" _

That's when Lily considered visiting a therapist.

Lily shook out of her thoughts and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper Remus had given her at breakfast that day. It was at the very bottom of her book bag. However, when she pulled out the piece of parchment, it was a different paper than she was looking for. It was the Star Fierce Code paper. She had totally forgotten about it. She decided to solve it now.

"L…I…L…" Lily began to crack the code. She actually snorted in amusement for the first time in a week. The note read:

JAMES LOVES LILY!!!!!

Lily fiddled with left lower corner when she saw written in tiny writing: Note written in Star Fierce Code by the awesome and HOTT Marauder/Hogwarts Heart Throb & Chick Magnet: SIRIUS BLACK!!!!!! Because the writer of this note is SO irresponsible, lazy, and abnormal, this has been kept safely by Remus Lupin. It was meant to tease James of his love affair with Lily Evans.

She laughed for the first time in days. Then she found the note she had been looking for originally.

Dear Fellow Marauders,

As you "instructed" me in the numerous "Love Doctor" sessions, I've realized that Lily doesn't want me to give her any mushy gifts or act all nice to her. She wants to know I've _changed_. That way she will trust me. So, if you can at all, it would be nice if you (I'm talking to you Sirius) laid off from the whole Love Doctor act. I don't think I'll be needing it anymore…..Although, it will be hard to not watch Arnold Weasley sneak out to go see Molly at 3:00 in the morning. Hopefully he won't get tongue-tied again. *snicker!* –

The awesome and CHANGED Marauder-no-more Hogwarts Heart Throb: James Potter

Suddenly, a flash back of the Winter Ball came to Lily. She asked James why she had changed and he said….."_Maybe I changed…because you changed," _

So that was why James had abruptly changed. He wanted to make _her _feel good about him.

Immediately, Lily felt ashamed. James had tried so hard to impress her and attempted with pure struggle to obtain social standards. And she hadn't even realized it. Sure, he had stop teasing Edna the Eerie – she was actually calling Edna that now, finally apprehending that the nick name fit her well – but Lily had just thought that it was just a coincidence; or that he had matured five years worth in a week.

But none of that mattered now.

And just like that, as those words rushed into Lily's head with a shock of sorrow and power, she knew she had made a big mistake. A mistake that she would never forgive herself for doing.

***

Later that day, Lily was on a walk in the court yard. It was evening time, and she could see a pretty pink and purple sunset rising above the lake. It was also cold outside, but Lily had forgotten to bring a jacket, so she hugged herself, running her hands over her arms to try to cause some friction. Suddenly, she felt a raindrop land on her forehead. Looking up, to Lily's disappointment she saw the sky turning grey and dark, beginning to rain. Running across the grass, avoiding the growing puddles, she made her way towards a bench on the side of the lake below a large pear tree. She sat down and ran her fingers threw her hair, she felt it getting frizzy because of the moisture in the air. Besides that, it was actually sort of peaceful now.

"Hey," a voice said behind her.

Lily jumped from surprise and turned around to see Severus Snape sit down next to her on the bench, smiling a small smile. Her eyes went wide and she groaned, resting her face into her hands. Why did he have to come? Hadn't she made it clear that she had never wanted to see him again?!?!?! This made the situation so much more stressful!

"I heard that your……..friend died," he said softly. "I'm sorry,"

Lily didn't realize it, but when she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. "He wasn't just my _friend_," she snarled, "he wasn't just my _boyfriend _either. I loved James with all my heart, as much as it pains you to understand it. And he hasn't died yet."

Snape didn't know what to say so he just muttered, "Oh,"

Lily shook her head and let out a sob, "You shouldn't have came here," she cried, "It just makes it all so much harder for me! Didn't I make it perfectly understandable that I did _not want to see you ever again_?" she pushed some hair out of her face, and looked away.

"Lily," he said quietly, "don't you see? It's not that you don't want to see me, it's that you _do_,"

Lily, shocked, faced him, her eyes wide. _Say what?!_

"That's right," he nodded, seeing the shock on her face, "You want to see me. You need someone to comfort you. You're hurt,"

"I am perfectly fine!" she snapped.

All of the sudden, Snape put a grimy hand on Lily's chin, making her look into her eyes. She gaped, not believing what was happening. "Don't touch me!" she said forcefully, trying to pull away. But Snape kept his hold. Before Lily could say anything else, he firmly grasped her face and kissed her full on the mouth.

_No! No! No! This should not be happening! What am I doing?!?!?!_

Lilyi tried to pull away from his grimy touch. Some of Snape's long, oily hair fell into Lily's face, and to her disgust, she was sure she saw a drop of grease fall onto her chin because of it.

_Eww! Gross!!!_

However, Snape did not see Lily's attempts to pull away restraint, but he saw it as passion. His sweaty hand yanked on a strand of her hair and his caked lips slimed all around her mouth. Lily could not take it anymore. She certainly did not love Snape. She hated every moment of his kissing and could not take it any longer.

An unknown force within her built up in her muscles and with all of her strength, Lily pushed Snape with all her might away from her. So hard, in fact, he fell off the bench. He looked up at her, his eyes wide and a stunned look on his face. Tears fell down Lily's face and she angrily wiped them away. "How do you not understand," she growled, "that I absolutely _hate _your sorry guts?!?!"

He gasped, his mouth agape. Lily could tell that he did not realize really how much she despised him.

"Excuse me," an elderly voice said. Lily looked up to see Dumbledore frowning down at them.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Lily cried, hastily brushing off the rest of her tears off her cheeks.

"I'm sorry to be interrupting this little……..gathering," he stared coldly down at Snape, "But it has come to my attention that Mr. Snape, here was included in the injury of James Potter. I will be needing to talk to him as well as the other occused."

Shamefaced, Snape stood up and followed Dumbledore. "Oh, and Miss Evans," Dumbledore turned around. "I am sorry if you do not see Mr. Snape anymore." Not daring to look at Lily, Snape turned guiltily away and soon, they were gone.

Lily was shocked. Beyond shocked. Snape had been a part of what they had done to James and he tried to win Lily back by pretending he wasn't and that he was sorry. A list of particularly bad words ran through her head as she realized Snape had used her……x 100! He was such a slimy, despicable, detestable JERK!!! She began to cry, hopelessly. Lily could not have helped to think what would happen if she had actually enjoyed him kissing her. Then maybe later on in life they would get married, her whole life without knowing Snape had helped attempt to kill James Potter. Her heartbeat went quick and she let out a long, staggering breath. And for the third time that night, Lily heard someone else come up to her.

"Hi Lily," Remus said, concerned. "What's wrong?" he sat down next to her.

Lily could not help it. She wiped away her tears once more and embraced him. He rubbed her back and shushed her, calming her down. Remus was the kind of person she could trust. He was a brilliant friend. The kind of friend that could cure away Lily's hatred, agony, and disbelief towards Snape in a minute.

***

"I'm alright, I'm alright!"

Arabella and Lily were visiting the hospital wing, and at the moment, Arabella was giving Sirius bunches and bunches of kisses and hugs.

"Oh!" Bella cried. "I'm just so glad you're _okay_!!"

"Me too," Lily grinned weakly, leaning over to give her healing friend a hug. Thanks to Remus, she had gotten over Snape. For real this time.

Sirius sighed. "Boy, I am _lucky_! I have all the girls I need."

Sirius had returned back to the hospital wing after a concerned Lily and a crying Arabella informed Madame Pomfrey Sirius needed depression and shock treatment. Luckily, Madame Pomfrey's amazing medical skills cured Sirius in exactly one day and had restored Sirius to his usual self. However, Madame Pomfrey decided to keep Sirius in the hospital wings for a few more days after finding terrible burns from the fire and cuts from when he was mugged.

Arabella giggled. "I guess we just can't resist your charm."

"Um, have you heard anything about James?" Lily asked anxiously.

Sirius frowned. "Madam Pomfrey said it was very rare that he might survive, considering he broke more than two thirds of bones in his body. There is a slight, chance, though."

Lily chewed on her already torn and bitten nails. "Well I really hope he does survive, because I only have one good nail left."

They all waited on the bed beside James, waiting.

For a chance.

For a sign.

For a miracle.

Lily arose and sat down next to James. This was the first time she had been allowed to see him. His body was covered with hundreds of sores where the rocks had sunk into his skin. And usually blushed and cheerful face was scorn with white, pale skin. She stroked his messy black hair, wishing for that flashy smile to pop on his face.

Lily suddenly realized it was no use. James was never coming back. He was going to die.

All of the sudden, the heart rate monitor pulsed to a quick beeping noise. A once red and flat line grew to a steadfast, moving green one.

"He – he's alive!" Lily whispered in disbelief.

Arabella jumped up and scurried to her side as James began to cough unsteadily.

"James, James!" the girls were yelling.

Lily gasped.

Two beautiful, chocolate brown eyes, that Lily had missed so much, propped open. If eyes could smile, James' definitely was.

"Hey," James choked weakly.

Everyone laughed, smiled, yelled, and hugged in relief. James was alive!

"James!" Lily grinned. She wrapped her arms around his neck, but then quickly removed them, afraid she might hurt him. "I'm so glad you're all right!"

"I'm glad I am too." He struggled to sit upright, wincing at the unexpected pain.

Lily immediately scurried around the bedside, trying to see what she could do to help as two nurses poured some pain medicine into a glass.

James laughed. "I didn't know you were aiming for a degree in nursing, Lils,"

Lily beamed with the attention and funniness of his joke, but was also surprised to feel she was amused that he had came up with his own nick name for her.

She laughed along. "Well that Wizard Medical Care class was bound to affect me sometime."

She was glad to have James back. His chocolate brown eyes – the impossibly messy jet black hair – the cocky, mischievous smile – the strong sound of his voice. Lily finally understood why everyone liked James so much; why he was so popular. James was just a potentially happy person. He was _good _at being…happy. Once you were around him, you couldn't help but feel happy as well. She realized that her terrible night mares about the future she would not have to worry about anymore. James…would live.

There was suddenly a visual silence between them as both Lily and James realized they had left out Sirius and Arabella for quite a while. They, stunned, looked over to see Sirius and Arabella…smiling. Huh?

Bella and Sirius grinned a _ha-ha-I-know-something-you-don't_ smile. "How long was that my dearest Arabella?" Sirius raised his eyebrows and smiled innocently.

"Ten full minutes and twenty seven seconds," Arabella held out her diamond studded watch proudly for both of them to see, "Of forgetting we were here and talking to each other." She winked at Lily and wiggled her eyebrows at James.

"Not bad I must say," Sirius nodded gravely.

Lily hid her face as she felt her cheeks turn red as her hair.

"Oo," Sirius exclaimed, laughing. "Lily's getting reeeedddddddd!!!"

They all laughed. Even Lily, eventually.

Lily found herself wishing these moments would last forever. Her life was……restored. Everything was going to be just fine.

**BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**I must say, didn't that leave a mark???!!!!! It sure did on me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That chapter was AWESOME I must say!!! Don't you agree?????**


	14. The Closet! omg!

Chapter 14 – The Closet

"No! No! No! You can_not _make me!!" Lily cried.

"Oh, yes I can," Arabella said, turning around to smirk at Sirius, "did you hear this girl? She thinks I can't make her!" she giggled.

Sirius, Remus, Jessica, Arabella, and Lily were all sitting with each other in the Common Room well after curfew, talking and resting. Sirius had recently been released from the Hospital Wing, however, James was not released until the next day. Lily, at the moment, was not in the greatest of moods. Since she and James had practically made their statement as boyfriend and girlfriend, Arabella and Sirius had made up their minds in convincing Lily to have a closet session with James. And they would do whatever it took to make them do it.

"Come on, Lils," Jessica rolled her eyes. She and Remus had finally taking thinking that they should be boyfriend and girlfriend, so she liked to think she knew everything what's everything about everything with relationships. "James _does _deserve a little pleasure!"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, looking at Lily but then turning the other way to glare at Jessica, "and BTW _Jessica_," he fumed, "_I _am the love doctor! Not _anyone _else! How long will it be for everyone to understand that?! It's been about seven years!"

"We'll need just about seven more, Sirius," Remus joked.

Sirius rolled his eyes, and flicked back his slick black hair across his shoulder, folding his hands in his lap and crossing his leg over the other. "Now, Lily," he said seriously with concerned eyes, "I think the best thing to lead your relationship right now is to give James a little freedom. He almost died, for pity's sake! I know he's just _dying _to get down and dirty with you at this point! And why shouldn't he? You've got great hair, gorgeous lips, and a hot body,"

Lily rolled her eyes, but Arabella's eyes got wide and mouth went agape. "Ex_cuse me?!_" she snapped, clearly jealous.

Sirius lifted his hands up, free of innocence. "Sorry, babe, just stating the facts!"

Arabella gasped, crossing her arms angrily and turning away.

"Whatever," Sirius continued, able to be rid of a jealous girlfriend and continue his love doctor lesson, "All I'm saying is, you should give him a closet session! And I certainly well know he's deserved it!"

Lily stood up angrily, not able to take any more of this nonsense. "I would like to see you try!" she said, before leaving the room with a slam of the Girls Dormitory door.

They all watched her leave with keen eyes.

"Alright!" Sirius smiled mischievously, automatically coming back into his prankster, roguish self. "Now, here's the plan……."

***

_SLAM!_

Through the locked door, Lily heard Arabella giggle. "Have fun you guys!"

"Man," Sirius laughed. "I can't wait to see what they look like when they come out!"

Lily rubbed her eyes, wishing this had never happened. Talk about embarrassing!

Somehow, Sirius had created an evil plan to set James and Lily up together for a closet session that day. And, they had succeeded.

Sitting down, Lily glanced at the other side of the room, where James was sitting also. It was kind of awkward, actually. Either of them didn't really know what to say to each other, not to mention what to _do_. Lily wasn't exactly the "get down and dirty" type like Arabella, so she had never actually done this type of thing before.

Thanks to Madame Pomfrey, James had pretty much recovered fully. His skin showed no sign of painful scars, and his face was back to his usual, happy color. Lily saw him run a hand through his messy, black hair. She wondered what he was thinking.

James stood up, sticking his hands in his pocket nervously. From what Lily could see, he was looking for a light switch, but there was not one visible. Instead, the only light in the room was from the crack of light outside, sending and pretty nice dim glow. Giving up, James leaned against one of the shelves and ruffled his hair once more.

Lily brushed an auburn string of hair behind her ear. "So," Lily cleared her throat. "um…how's quidittich going?"

"Um…….fantastic," he muttered, fishing for words.

She smiled uncomfortably and nodded, looking away. Seeing her opportunity to escape from small talk, she stood up and turned around, checking out the jars of substances on the storage shelves behind her. They were filled with all sorts of gross stuff. Potions, moldy food, stuff like that. They were probably kept for disgusting punishments.

Running her fingers over the shelve, she picked two jars randomly to check them out and stepped back. Suddenly, Lily's foot became trapped for a second inside an inlet on the storage unit and began to fall backwards, dropping the jars behind her. There was a crash, as the jars broke open, leaving many dangerous and sharp glass shards on the floor. Lily gasped when she realized she was about to fall on the hazardous glass and cut up her hands, arms, and legs, when James caught her in his arms, leading her away from the glass, and catching her just in time. He carefully set her down on the ground, sitting next to her, his arms around her waist.

"Oh my gosh," she said, breathlessly, brushing the glass near them away. "Thank you so much! I had no clue that – " Lily stopped when she realized James was staring very intently at her.

"What?" she asked, her voice out of pitch.

"Your eyes," James whispered, brushing a strand of hair away from her face. "Has anyone told you your eyes are so insanely beautiful?"

Lily smiled, blushing, and looked up at him again. "You know what?" she said, sitting up at her knees so their heads were at the same height. She actually didn't know what she was doing, but it felt very forward. She played with a piece of his hair this time, running the messy top of his head through her fingers.

"What?" Lily saw James swallow, probably shocked by her boldness.

"Your eyes are beautiful too,"

Unexpectedly, James leaned in and kissed her softly. This was the second time a guy had kissed Lily in back to back days. Except this time, it felt a lot different. Her heart raced excitedly, and her eyes rolled back into her head with appeal. She wasn't screaming inside her head, but she was just thinking.

_Bliss. Bliss. Bliss. Bliss._

James suddenly leaned back, shaking his head like he didn't believe that just happened. "S-sorry," he stuttered, "I didn't mean to do that – "

But before James could finished, Lily pressed a light finger on his lips, signaling him to be quiet, and then kissed him passionately back. At first, Lily could feel James was in shock. His lips were hard against hers and he didn't quite know how to react. But then he realized he was being so ridiculously stupid. After all, this was what he had been waiting for his whole seven years at Hogwarts!

He began to kiss her back. They were meant for each other; they were supposed to do this. He touched her cheek and pulled her closer. She gently grasped some of his hair and felt goosebumps shiver restlessly down her arms.

"James," Lily cried, wrapping herself in his arms. "I didn't know!"

"That's okay," James said. That's all he really needed to say, anyways.

"Hey," Lily smiled, "remember that time in fourth year when I was so mad at you for turning my hair pink? I couldn't turn it back for a month!"

"Haha yeah," James sighed, remembering. "That was classic."

Suddenly, the door flew open and Lily and James scrambled to their feet to see Arabella, Sirius, Jessica and Remus looking in on them.

Arabella started cracking up, of course, at the sight of them. Lily's perfectly curled hair had turned into a birds nest, and James' was even messier than usual (if that's possible). Sirius and Remus walked up to James, giving him slaps on the back and high fives.

"Woo hoo!" Sirius yelled. "Love Doctor rocks," he grinned, pumping his fist.

"Congratulations, James," Remus nodded and smiled ear-to-ear.

Jessica smiled at Lily, checking her out. "I doubt you and James were just doing a little talking at the sight of you!" she laughed.

"Yay," Arabella cried, throwing her arms around Lily, "it finally happened! And to think you thought we couldn't make you! You should be thanking me!"

Lily closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of Arabella's intoxicating cherry flavored shampoo. (she used to have eucalyptus but Sirius liked the cherry better so she changed it) "Thanks, Bells," she murmured.

Bella smiled sweetly and then yelled, "of course you are!" and then burst into a fit of giggles.

After that, Lily's friends started to head out of the closet, without meaning to, separating Lily and James. But all they wanted to do was be close to each other. The girls started one way down the hall and the boys started down the other, but Lily turned around to watch them walk away once Jessica and Arabella weren't looking. James looked back at her too. She smiled a small smile and waved. A little smirk played on his face that turned into a grin. And then they walked away.


	15. Going Public

**ok sorry guys this chapter isn't the best or anything.....or the longest. but i thought you should know how lily and james were acting now that they are officially BF & GF. **

**BTW........i know a lot of people (thanks RenesmeeHale!!!) have really liked this story and stuff and have actually recommended me becoming an author! i actually want to be an author and im writing another story right now. it's not harry potter or anything i made it up myself but i was wondering if you guys wanted to read some of it! Review to answer! thanks XOXO CARE **

Chapter 15 –Going Public

James and Lily had decided after that one fateful night in the closet that it was time to take their relationship public. After all, they were boyfriend and girlfriend and Lily had no longer the need to be embarrassed about it. However, they decided to stay subtle.

The next morning at breakfast, James and Lily walked into the Great Hall together, purposely fifteen minutes late. They figured they would be able to be noticed. Noticed was actually an understatement.

The Great Hall doors swung open loudly and the Hogwarts students fell silent as they saw Lily and James walking in with each other. Everyone, including the professors, watched with wide eyes, in awe. They could not believe what they were seeing. The girls gaped and glared at Lily in total envy, as well as the boys glared at James. James seeing this smirked proudly and wrapped a manly arm around her shoulders. Professor Flitwick's mouth was open so wide, his eggs any second would begin to fall out. Dumbledore smiled a small smile and watched them carefully. Snape, who was in serious probation and had been sworn to stand at least ten feet away from Lily at all times and never talk to her again, gawked at the two and rubbed his eyes to see if he was imagining things. But he definitely wasn't.

"Wooooo hooooo!" Sirius broke the silence by standing up and cheering. "My man James! And my Lily Flower!"

Lots of people laughed at this, and as they walked by, James' friends high fived him and Lily's friends giggled and raised their eyebrows, impressed.

They finally sat down (next to each other of course) and began to eat their breakfast. Lily was blushing like crazy, knowing that besides the laughter and Sirius' outburst everyone was still watching them. James was smiling like crazy, knowing that he was pretty much the luckiest man alive. He grabbed Lily's hand, and rested them on the table in front of them.

One girl, who had been chasing after James since first year, turned bright red and actually stormed out of the Great Hall, her two friends racing after her. A lot of the guys laughed at this, and things almost turned to normal. Of course there were still a lot of people staring but Lily actually kind of liked it. Thinking of something un Lily-like in her mind, she stood up, the chair squeaking behind her. James looked at her curiously, probably thinking, _what is she doing_? But before he could say anything, Lily wrapped her arms around him and kissed him full on the mouth.

Screams of delight and laughter filled the room, and Lily sat down, quite red in the face. Arabella and Jessica were gaping at her, and Sirius was, again, yelling loudly. James grinned at her like crazy, and she grinned like crazy back.

So much for subtle.

***

Days, weeks passed. Hogwarts was finally getting used to the fact that James and Lily were now boyfriend and girlfriend.

Whenever Lily passed James in the hall, things seemed to go into slow motion and all she could see is James. She would smile at him as long as she could and then walk backwards, watching him until she began to feel silly, and turned back around.

Whenever they had a study break or free time, they would work together, and then afterwards walk around the grounds, holding hands. His hands were so rough and strong, probably from grasping that broom handle so often.

Sometimes Lily would find little things around her room. Well, maybe not little. The first time, she found a box of diamond earrings on her bedside table. Next to them, he left a note that said, Love, James. She decided to wear them, since they were absolutely beautiful, and during breakfast Arabella was stunned. "Where in the world did you get those earrings? They're gorgeous!" Lily smiled and shot a knowing look at James. "A friend. Okay well maybe more than a friend!" she answered simply. A week later, she found a pearl necklace on her pillow. Like last time, there was a note that said: Love, James. They were exquisite! And she loved that James was giving her gifts but they looked very expensive! Lily was feeling sort of guilty about how much money he was spending on her…So she decided to talk to him about it.

Later on, James and Lily were walking around the grounds by the lake.

"James?" she asked, toying with one of the diamond earrings.

"Yes, my beautiful Lily?" he smiled, swinging their arms.

She smiled and forgot for a second what she had asked while staring into his chocolate brown eyes when she finally remembered and said, "You know the gifts you've been giving me?"

"Yeah…." He grinned, "I think Arabella's having a kick out of that. Sirius is getting mad at me cause now she's expecting stuff like that from him!"

Yep that sounds like Bella. "Well, I don't think you should give them to me anymore," she looked up at him.

"Why?" he frowned, concerned, "do you not like them?"

"No, of course I like them," Lily assured him. "It's just that….well I feel sort of guilty. They're all gorgeous but they also look expensive…."

James laughed a little and then smiled down at her.

"What?" Lily asked, confused.

"Lily, you don't need to feel guilty about anything. I _want _to spend money on you. And besides, I'm not going to go bankrupt anytime soon, trust me."

"Well……." Lily thought about it. "Okay. Fine with me," she grinned.

"Oh and just so you know, I am going to be giving you a present each week," James added.

Lily smiled and rolled her eyes. "That will be a little hard, James. There are a lot of weeks in the school year, you know,"

"Well, the school year is ending soon, Lils,"

Lily stopped in her tracks, shocked. She had not realized her life at Hogwarts would soon be over. It was going to be hard for everyone.

"Oh my gosh," she started walking again. "I didn't realize how little time we have left here at Hogwarts."

James nodded. "It will soon be over."

Lily realized something. "James," she said, with a coy smile playing on her face, "you haven't given me a present this week yet!"

"You're right," James nodded. They had now reached Hogwarts again, and were in the Gryffindor Common Room. It was very late, so they were the only ones in there at the moment. "Well, I'll just have to give you it now."

She looked at him curiously and stood up on her tiptoes as he kissed her good night. She hugged him tight, breathing in his wonderful scent. "I love you," he said softly.

She looked up at him, holding his chin. "I love you too,"


	16. Coming Home Proposals OMG!

**It pains me to say that our Lily/James love story is ending! There are only a couple more chapters! :0(**** Thank you to everyone who has supported me in writing this! ILY! (btw.....be prepared for serious hyperventilation in what happens in this chapter! Feel free to review and tell me who screamed while reading! lol )**

Chapter 17 – Coming Home Proposals

"I cannot believe we actually are done with Hogwarts," said Jessica, smiling warily. "I swear tonight I'm going to think Arabella's still laying next to me – snoring up a storm!"

"I do not snore!" Arabella protested loudly.

Lily and Jessica looked at each other knowingly with raised eyebrows and then said, "Uh, yeah you do! And you snore like crazy!"

Arabella scrunched up her nose, annoyed, and took a fake interest at examining her manicured nails.

"Don't worry, babe," Sirius smirked at her, "I find girls who snore are incredibly sexy!"

Bella then straightened up and beamed a new sense of confidence in her.

"Well, like it or not, I'm going to miss that obnoxious, insanely, loud snoring. I'm going to miss everything," Lily said, gazing out of the Hogwarts Express window. The six friends were finally taking the long ride home from Hogwarts, never to set foot on the memorable train again.

"Me too," Remus agreed. "Remember when the girls pranked us and stole all of Sirius' hair products? And James' Quidditch stuff? And my books?"

They all laughed. They remembered that day well. Sirius spent the rest of the week moping about his hair products and either hiding his hair inside a baseball cap or a long hoodie. Finally not being able to stand the agony, he swept up his things, went to Hogsmeade and got a buzz cut. He actually sort of liked it, too! Sirius would walk around school, rubbing the top of his fuzzy head. But Arabella didn't like it, so she told him then and there that she stole his stuff and that she wanted him to grow his hair back out again. Sirius didn't have another hair cut since.

"And the time Jessica had to waltz with Arthur Weasley! Molly was furious!" Lily giggled.

"Eww," Jessica cracked up. "Don't remind me!"

All three girls sighed in unison. "Wow, we have so much memories here," Bella pondered aloud, toying with a curly strand of hair, "I don't know how at all I'm going to live without Hogwarts. I'll be leaving everything!"

"Um, ahem!" Sirius cleared his throat, pressing a hand to his chest as if offended. "You'll still have me!"

Arabella giggled and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Of _course _I'll still have you!"

Sirius practically melted.

Remus cleared his throat. "Sirius, James," Remus looked at them with a knowing look. "Um we had to go talk to that Hufflepuff boy on the Quidittch team about something, right?" He coughed shortly afterwards and from what Lily heard, it sounded like he was saying, 'Crap'. Huh?

"Oh, right," James and Sirius stood up immediately. "I'll uh see you later girlies," James turned around, the last of the boys to walk out of the compartment, to give Lily a smile.

As soon as the door closed Arabella began to talk. "Okaaaaayyyy," Arabella said, her eyebrows drawn together. "Something's fishy here. James and Sirius have never talked to a Hufflepuff in their _life_, not even about Quidditch! I think they're up to something….."

"I don't know," Jessica said, thinking at the same time. "They might have really need to talk to that Hufflepuff dude. You never know!"

Bella rolled her eyes. "Oh, c'mon! That is _not _the case. Right, Lils?"

Lily looked up from her book she wasn't really reading. "I don't know," she said, before continuing chomping down on a pumpkin pasty.

Bella crossed her arms and sighed. "Fine then, don't believe me! But I just _know _something's gonna happen. I just know it!"

***

About an hour later, the girls were carrying out their luggage from the Hogwarts Express. They hadn't seen the boys since they had left them on the train and they were all itching to find out where they were. But they were all excited about finally coming apart of the Wizarding society as grown women.

"This is it!" Arabella jumped up and down, exciteded. "This is when we finally become adults! Does my hair look okay?"

Jessica and Lily laughed. Typical Bella.

"Hey I see my parents!" Jessica stood on her tip-toes and waved at a red-headed couple.

"Me too!" Arabella squealed. They left Lily to embrace their parents and she was about to turn around to find her's when she felt someone tap on her shoulder.

"Oh, hey, James!" Lily smiled up at him. "Where did you go earlier?"

"Um, Lily?" James was standing in front of her, fiddling with something in his pocket. He looked extremely nervous.

"Yeah?" Lily asked, confused. What was wrong?

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah, of course,"

He lead her to the center of the plaza, rubbing a hand through his hair quickly. He only did that when he was really nervous. Wow, what was up?

James turned around to face her, and Lily looked away, blushing. She looked towards her right and saw Sirius on one knee next to Arabella! Oh my gosh was Sirius proposing???

"Lily," James said, catching her attention. James brushed a piece of auburn hair behind her ear. "I love you, and I truly mean it. I've always have, I just didn't realize how much at first. You're amazing," he paused. "And you make me feel….different. In a good way, of course." Before Lily could figure out what he was doing, James knelt down in front of her on one knee and pulled out a small red velvet box.

_Whaaaaaaaattttttt?!?!??! OH MY GOSH!_

"So," James chuckled uncertainly, seeing Lily's humongous eyes, "Lily Elizabeth Evans….will you marry me?"

Lily covered her hand on her mouth and started to cry. She was so happy. This was why Sirius and James had to leave earlier. So they could prepare themselves for the proposal!

James propped open the red velvet box to reveal a remarkable wedding ring, with a golden band, a large square cut diamond in the middle, and little emeralds going down the side. Emeralds. Like her eyes.

"Oh, James!" she cried as she leapt into his arms. James wiped the tears off of her cheeks and she laughed in spite of herself.

She looked at him.

He looked at her.

And Lily could not wait another moment so she took a deep breath and kissed that James like there was no tomorrow. He jumped back in surprise.

"I guess that counts as a 'yes'," he reasoned when they broke off.

Lily laughed and nodded her head and they hugged each other dearly.

"I love you James Potter," she murmured into his ear.

"I love _you _Lily Potter," he murmured back.

_Lily _Potter_. I can't believe it!_

Lily could only think one thing: she was getting married! Wedding plans soared through her head and she pictured herself walking down the aisle, smiling at that handsome man in front of her.

"I think Hawaii would be a nice honeymoon," James suggested.

"I think so too."

"Lily! Lily!" Arabella ran up to her, shaking her left hand crazily. "Look look!" She held out her hand in front of Lily's face, allowing her to see a gorgeous silver ring with a diamond and sapphires. "I'm getting married!" she added, giggling. "To _Sirius!_"

Lily couldn't help but giggle as well. "I'm getting married, too!" she held out her even prettier ring, "To _James_!"

The girls giggled loudly and gave each other big hugs. Lily's heart was pounding so loud, she could hear it ringing in her ears.

"Now," said Arabella, completely serious. "I think we should start talking about our honeymoons……."

Lily rolled her eyes and smiled. Could her life get any better?

She caught James' eye and smiled. He smiled back, ear to ear.

Yes. It could.


	17. AUTHOR NOTE STORY IDEA!

**AUTHOR NOTE – STORY IDEA**

Hey guys it's me – Care. SOOOOOO if you have realized, my first story, Taking Chances is ending. Boo Hoo!  so I have set up a few more Ideas for the next story! I want your suggestions, ideas, comments, all that stuff. (btw the number of story ideas are numbered by my favorite)

Okay first story idea:

Couple: Ron & Hermionie

Story Title: Just Friends

Summary: Ron and Hermionie had always been best of friends. But as their seventh year at Hogwarts comes around…things have been changing! They slowly see their friends become boyfriend girlfriend……and things can get more than just a little uncomfortable. But when Dumbledore invites Ron, Hermionie, and their friends to a get-away vacation in Hawaii, things start to wild! So what are a boy and girl to do?

Second story idea:

Couple: Sirius and Arabella

Story Title: ?

Summary: So you all know Sirius and Arabella. The most popular guy and girl fall in love. Whole bunch of adventures! And way too much fluff! Nuff said. (same characters as Taking Chances….james Lily remus Jessica the works)

Anyways I REALLY need your help so PLEASE HELP ME!

Thanks for everything guys! Love ya –

XOXO CARE


	18. Epilogue

**BTW, this epilogue is taking place if as Voldemort had not killed James and Lily Potter and had never entered their lives. It makes things all so much more happy, don't you think?**

Taking Chances Epilogue

_Ten Years Later_

"Harry!" Lily yelled from the kitchen downstairs, her hands resting on her hips. Her long, auburn hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and her green eyes were tired and red. She still looked pretty though. Lily had grown into an even more beautiful woman after Hogwarts.

"Did you take your sister's juice box again?"

Hearing his mother calling him, a young boy around twelve years old with messy black hair, glasses, and green eyes trampled down the stairs. Another handsome boy about a year older with longish black, slick hair and blue eyes followed him down after.

"Mother," the little boy said, smiling an innocent smile, "_why _would I _ever _steal my dear sister's juice box??"

"That is very true, Mrs. Potter," Harry's friend said, his blue eyes twinkling like his father's did and nodded siriusly. (**haha pun – seriously after his father! ;) ) **"Why _would _he?"

Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes, giving in. She knew deep down that the two had really stolen the juice, but there was no point of causing commotion with those little trouble makers.

"Goodness, you two remind me _so _much of your fathers! Now go on, your breakfast is on the table,"

"Thanks mom," muffled Harry, his mouth already full of eggs and toast. He snickered at his baby sister, who he noted was drinking milk and not her apple juice that morning.

_Ding! Dong!_

"That must be your parents, Jake," said Lily, playing with her messy hair and trying to make it look slightly more presentable. "Do you have your things together?"

However, Jake did not answer because his parents had just walked through the door. A woman with dark curly hair and sapphire eyes walked in, a hand rested on her bulging stomach. Her husband, walked along beside her, his black hair below his ears and blue eyes twinkling, as usual.

"Hey guys," Lily smiled as she picked up her youngest daughter Addison from her high chair and balanced her on her hip.

"Hello my Lily Flower," Sirius said, kissing her cheek and ruffling Addison's auburn ball of hair.

"Wow, Sirius," she grinned, gesturing towards his head. "You cut your hair!"

"Yes," said Arabella, who gave her son a kiss on the cheek. "He figured he probably should since he and James would be starting that new job. It would make him look more….put together."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yeah that's her way of saying she was tired of my gorgeous long hair,"

Lily grinned. "Well maybe it was time for a new look,"

"So, boys," Bella asked. "How'd the sleepover go?"

"Great!" Jake smiled excitedly. "We propelled the neighbor's cat off the roof!"

Lily smiled, amused, as she saw Sirius' eyes go wide. "That sounds _aweso-_" he started but then stopped when his wife caught his eye, a stern look on her face. "I mean – bad boy, Jake. You should never propel a neighbor's cat off the roof without permission,"

Arabella rolled her eyes and smiled. Sirius was still getting used to the whole 'discipline' idea.

"So where's James, Lils?" Sirius asked while loosening his tie.

"He should be down any minute," Lily glanced at her watch and then stepped over to speak into the intercom.

"James," Lily said, her voice calling through the house. "Are you ready?"

"I'll be right down," James replied promptly.

"Remind me, Bella," Lily said, turning back around to face her guests, "when are you due again?"

"Three months," she smiled, as Sirius wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Lily grinned. "And have you thought up any cute girl names?"

"Well I sort of like the name Anastasia," Arabella looked up at Sirius, "It _is _a lot like my name and I know it sounds regal and everything, but I've always liked it. Her nickname would be Anya."

"Oh my Gosh that is too cute!" Lily smiled.

"I know, right?" Arabella grinned, excited. She still had her moments as the preppy girl of the group.

Soon after that, James came down the stairs. He was wearing a nice button up shirt and slacks, and an expensive looking tie. However, his hair was very messy. As usual.

"Hey," he and Sirius gave each other the 'fist bump one armed hug' ritual they had and then James step-sided to give Bella a kiss on the cheek.

Lily sighed, unimpressed. "James," she rolled her eyes as she walked over, trying to tame his hair, "did you even _try _to do something with your hair this morning?"

"Sorry, babe," he said good natured as he gave her a sweet kiss.

Lily smiled. "Well, try to brush it out or something,"

"All ready did,"

"Rinsed it under water?"

"Yup,"

Lily let out a deep breath. "Sirius," she put her hands on her hips, "We need back up,"

Sirius nodded. "I've got just what you need!"

He tossed a little container of hair gel and Lily catched it easily.

"It comes in _travel size_?!" James asked incredulously.

"Of course," Sirius beamed proudly.

Five minutes later, James' hair was more or less presentable and it was time for the two men to leave for their first day at their new job.

"Good luck," Lily said as she kissed her husband good bye.

"Yeah," Arabella did the same. "Go do your super hero Auror thing!"

Sirius Black and James Potter walked out of the house confidently. Sirius disapperated but James turned back to smile on last time at his wife. Just like he always did.

James and Lily Potter lived a great life. James taught Lily something that no one ever else could: to take a chance.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**BOO HOO! IT'S THE END! However, I still have some extra story stuff so there should be at least one more chapter.**

**According to my next story: IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO EITHER WRITE THE NEXT STORY BASED ON RON & HERMIONIE OR SIRIUS & ARABELLA REVIEW! I HAVE ONLY GOTTEN 6 REVIEWS SO FAR! I WILL NOT POST THE NEXT CHAPTER OR THE FINALLY TALLY OF THE VOTES UNTIL I REACH AT LEAST TEN! SO START CLICKING!**

**XOXO CARE**


	19. NEXT STORY DECISION PLUS TC EXTRAS!

**AUTHOR'S NOTE – DECISION MADE ON STORY IDEA**

Hey guys so as you know I have posted the story ideas that I have thought to be my next story. Thankfully, you guys liked both plots. Since no one has any other ideas, I have made the decision to count up the votes. Here is the tally:

Ron and Hermionie:

_iluvpotter1226_

_BadBoyHarleyLover_

_Veronica Rose Potter_

_KarrenMarren28_

_St4rxx_

Votes: 5

Sirius and Arabella:

_Jeane-Granger  
RenesmeeHale_

Votes: 2

So as you can see, the Ron and Hermionie story wins hands down.

_**BUT!!**_

Don't you worry! There will be plenty of Sirius in the Ron and Hermionie story AND I think I might write both stories at the same time! Sound good???? GOOD. CUZ THAT'S HOW IM GONNA DO IT!

Thanks guys! 

XOXO CARE


	20. Taking Chances Extras!

Now here's some fun stuff! Extras for Taking Chances.......ACTION!

_**Magic You May Have Missed.......**_

I thought it would be sufficient if I told you what happened to that weirdo freak Peter Pettigrew. You know, with the food obession and toad with skin issues? In the REAL HP story he reveals james and lily to voldemort but not in this story!!!!!!

BTW THIS IS A SHOUT OUT TO MY GIRL EMILY! REMEMBER TOADY THE TOAD??? I STILL HAVE HIM!!!!!!!!!

Peter Pettigrew had always been the strange and weird one. It was a surprise James and Sirius ever took aknowlede of him, since after all he was certainly the type that they would regularly tease and hex and stuff. So one cheerful, happy, sunny, lovely day, Peter's 200 year old toad, Toady the Toad, upped and died from skin sergery. The old frog just could not stay strong any longer. Peter was so incredibly sad that he went home and sobbed horribly. He then took a video camera and said his 'goodbyes' to everyone he loved. He even sang Ring Around The Rosies in their honor. Then, with a fatefull last breath, Peter Pettigrew died of agony. Take heed, he did not commit suicide! I am totally against that! It was just time............for him to die I guess! LOL..........

_**Bloopers...........................**_

Whoa......! This, by the way, is the fabulous, gorgeous, HOTT, sexy Hogwarts Heart Throb Sirius Black in your service. And the story is WAY not over! Check out these bloopers mate........they're awesome.

#1 From one of my all time favorite stories! (I forgot the author's name - sorry!) BTW the story takes place where Sirius is trying to set James & Lily up while they are playing truth or dare.

"Sup, Im back," James said as he strolled back into the room. "Did I miss a good dare?"

"Oh nothing much," Sirius lied between his teeth. "Peter just did a dare. He had to do the splitz,"

"Oh yeah? And how did that work out for him?"

"Why don't you ask him?"

"Peter how'd your splitz work out?"

Sirius gave Peter "_the look_" signalling him that if he didn't play along, there would be trouble.

Peter gulped. "Good," he said.

"Oh yeah?" James snorted, his eyebrows raised in disbelief, "Prove it!"

(**This is my favorite part! It is so freakin hilarious!) **Peter looked uneasily at his watchers and cried out in agony as he attempted to do the splitz and broke both legs. He then went to the Hospital Wing while on the way there he encountered some Hufflepuffs who hexed the life out of him. (**HAHAHAHAHAHA! ISN'T THAT SOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY??????)**

#2 Very "_Sirius" _like:

Sirius strolled down the hallway, flicking his shiny hair behind his backand being ever-so-handsome-and-hott, causing many girls passing to giggle. Suddenly, that ultra cute girl named Arabella, who had been flirting with him all year, began to walk past him. Sirius decided to take his chance and said the most manlies thing he had found so far in his magazine: "Hey girl. I got my library card and I am _checkin you out!_"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THANKS SO MUCH GUYS! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

XOXO CARE


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